The Sins of our Choices
by Rskde
Summary: The first accounts from the First Contact Wars come in, but the story shifts to the view of Anson Hawkins, an Orbital Shock Drop Trooper for the UNSC, the story also follows Ryan Shrake, a Marine who is in a different dimension, in 2519 where the Insurgent wars continue and the First Contact never happened, the small chance that it did was squandered and now the Innies attack.
1. Prologue

The Sins of our Choices

The Innies were always a threat to us, even when the Covvies came they saw it as a chance to gain independence, and kill anybody in their way.

This is my story, my name is Private Ryan Shrake of the UNSC Spirit of Fire, currently assigned to the UNSC Prefect while of the Spirit undergoes repairs.

Year: Classified  
Date: September 7th, UNSC Calender  
Subject: Ryan Shrake  
Age: 16  
Year of joining: 14

"Let me get this straight, you joined when you were a teenager?" The man asks, the room we were in was dark, but light enough to show his body, but not his face.

It was the classic interrogation set up, two body guards behind the man, from the looks they were both ODST's.

"I asked you a goddamned question bud, your in deep shit so I would suggest answering." The man presses.

"Yes, I joined them at that age." I answer.

"Why and how did you enter the celle?" The man asks.

"Well..." I start.

The sun was bright on Rullins II, but it was rejected transfer through the caves we were entering.

One of the men stops, knocking on a door, it opens and we walk in. The room was lit nicely, it would've been nicer if MA5B's weren't sitting around, their owners stuffing bullets into their magazines.

"Who the hell is this kid?" I hear from across the room, a large man approaches me, easily 6'5 with several scars across his face.

"We don't know, he saw the posters and wanted to join." One of the men that led me through said.

"He's a fucking kid." Scar face says.

"Hey fuck you! I can easily do what-" I start, but I am quickly silenced by the sounds of assault rifles arming around the room.

"Kids got balls, I'll admit it, but I wanna test him." Scar face says to the recruiter, the room winds down, everyone resuming to what they were doing.

Scar face walks away and comes back ten minutes later with somebody else.

The lady was struggling, her hands were bound and a bag was over her face. She was shivering, her clothes were tattered and her pants were bloodied, a huge suggestion of what her captors had been doing with her.

"Her name is Chief Petty Officer Andrea Walker." Scar face says, running his finger down her pale face.

He throws her to the floor, and cocks a Magnum, civilian issued, he tosses it to me. "Shoot her." He says, watching me.

I stare down at the pistol, looking at her the shivering figure, I raise the gun, my hands shaking.

I try to will my fingers to pull the trigger, but I couldn't, I looked away and a loud bang echoed throughout the complex.

"Let me get this straight you little bastard, you shot that lady?" The man asks me, he had stood up, staring down angrily at me.

"Yes." I answer, no emotion in my voice.

He just shakes his head, standing and walking out, his ODST's file in behind him.

"Ryan." A soft voice says, coming from seemingly nowhere.

"Who the hell...?" I ask, but I am cut short by an AI appearing on the table in front of me.

"You are being assigned to the UNSC Marine Corps or be put in prison for the next century." The AI says, staring at me.

"Choose." It presses.

"Fuck it, I'll join your stupid Marines, my dad wanted me to anyway." I say, the AI nods and disappears.

The door opens and I am let out and escorted by the same ODST's, out of the compound and into the city of Reach.

_  
Hey guys, Rsk here and I would like to start by saying that I have been reading a lot of Halo fanfiction by casquis, and I am inspired by him to write this, but instead with a Marine as my character instead of an ODST a long with a totally differing universe from his, this chapter was meant to be short.

As always, read on.  
-Rsk


	2. The Prefect

Chapter one: The Prefect  
One year later

The Pelican docked in the carrier's huge ass hangar bay, when I step out I am greeted with the sight of pilots and engineers scurrying around the hundreds of aircraft just sitting around.

"Shrake! C'mon!" Yelled one of my friends from Basic, Mason Corey, he was beckoning me over using his helmet.

I jogged over to him, I was wearing the standard UNSC Marine Corps armor, with my helmet and HUD glasses on as well, the world was a large connection with names appearing over the heads of the ones with helmets on, including Mason.

"What do you need?" I ask.

"Look down there." He points down the exit of the hangar, a fight was going on, one of the soldiers had Corporal chevrons on his shoulder, I couldn't see the other ones chevrons considering he was getting his ass handed to him.

Mason and I walk down and join the circle of spectators, the other fighter fell on his ass only to get kicked in the face by the Corporal. He fell backwards, blood dribbling from his cut lip.

"You come near Ghost one more time and I will fucking end you! Hear me?!" The Corporal yelled at the man, but the other fighter obviously wasn't listening, he was to busy laying on the floor staring up at the ceiling, blood still trickling from several places on his face.

The corporal spits on him, pushing past two other Marines before stepping into a barrack.

Mason laughs, punching me lightly on the arm before turning away, starting to walk away.

"Where're you going?" I ask him.

"Exploring, you German fuck." He says with a laugh.

I chuckle, it was true my ancestors were originally from Earth in Berlin, the large technologically advanced city in the middle of one of the planets continents.

Stepping away from the now dispersing circle, I found my barracks and stepped inside. There were four beds, each one assigned with a set of dog tags sitting on the pillow, which looked more like a brick than something you sleep on.

There were two others in the room, talking quietly, I eventually decide to sit next to one, joining in on the conversation.

"What's your name?" One asks, my HUD marks him as PFC Austin Locke.

"Private Shrake, nice to meet you, Locke." I tell him.

It takes him a couple of seconds to realize I had my HUD working before he laughs.

"Names Velstadt Khan." The other one says, extending his hand towards me, I shake it.

We talk for a little while before the speakers start going off, an ear piercing alarm echoing through them.

"Marines! Report to CIC immediately!" The speakers say.

"Fuck, we got an op soon." Locke says.

"What? I haven't even gotten a fucking rifle yet." I tell him, he just points over at my bed, I notice for the first time a small titanium box sitting under my bed, I walk over and open it.

A UNSC MA-5B and a Magnum sit inside, along with several magazines in a smaller box, just enough to fill all of my armor's ammo webbing.

I follow Khan and Locke to the CIC room, the whole Battalion was standing in the giant room, each Marine was being assigned to a squad.

"We got a Private Shrake here?" Someone yelled.

"Over here!" I called out, raising my hand, my rifle attached to the magnetic clamps on my back and my pistol in its designated holster.

He waves me over, I walk to him and he looks me over. "Corporal Jast, they call me Cake Walk, your in my squad for this op." He says, I nod and get into the line that was slowly forming for his squad.

"Marines! Attention!" A powerful voice booms.

Instantly three hundred pairs of boots click together, arms fly up into salutes for the man standing in front of all the squads.

"My name is Second LT Rodney Greene! I am saying this for the thirty new Marines on board!" He yells.

"Oo-rah!" One hundred voices yell out in sync, I assumed it was a welcome.

"Right, we are going to Rullins II, a Covenant war fleet just arrived there, so were going to teach them some manners for going into OUR system uninvited!" Greene yells.

I shiver, the system I had been living in just two years ago was now under attack.

"It will take us about a week to get there, however I still want you all in cryo sleep by five minutes after this briefing!" He yells.

"Oo-rah!" Everyone yelled back.

"Were dropping in via Pelican and then advancing on the enemy FOB that will be set up by the time we get there. An enemy Corvette plus four hundred infantry will be there, we will have artillery, Onager, and Hornet support while going in. Don't fuck this part up." He says, not having to yell anymore.

"After that we will be regrouping and attacking any other target Command feels like giving us to hit! Am I understood?!" He yells now.

"Oo-rah LT!" We yell.

"Go freeze Marines!" He yells, we all jog out in lines, stripping off our armor and entering the deep space refrigerators that we call cryo chambers.

_  
I don't mean to start a streak of short chapters, but I did. The next one will probably be longer if I get some support from you all! Hope to see you next time.

-Rsk


	3. Boots on the Ground

Chapter two: Boots on the Ground  
Date: February 16th, 2531 UNSC Calender  
Private Ryan Shrake, UNSC Marine Corps

I was woken up to alarms blaring throughout the ship, I sat up, the men and women around me already getting dressed after their time in the freezer, some were even grabbing their rifles and hurrying out of the cry chambers and I hadn't even put my pants on yet.

I quickly got changed, grabbing my helmet and armor, strapping it to my undersuit like they had taught me in Basic.

Once I was ready, I grabbed my rifle and jogged out to the hangar, Marines were already filing into their lines, I spotted Jast after a minute of aimlessly wandering. He was talking with an ODST, a female to be specific, she had pale skin and black hair, her face didn't have much of an expression but she was oddly beautiful for her skin tone. Jast had his helmet under his arm, I couldn't hear the conversation but it was quickly ended when the LT stood in front of the battalion.

"Marines! Attention!" He yelled, we all snapped into attention, staring directly ahead.

"The Covenant thinks they have the upper hand in this fight! However, they did not expect Third Battalion, now did they?!" He yelled, scattered Oorahs went up around the giant room.

"Corporal Jast, board the fucking Pelican and get ready, radio will be sent out for when we land." Greene said, Jast nodded and boarded, the rest of the squad followed.

When I stepped on, I sat down and strapped in, but Jast motioned for me to stand, I did so. Jast pointed over at the M247 hanging out of the side of the ship, I walked over to it, bracing the butt of the giant gun against my shoulder and got ready as the Pelican roars to life, lifting up and going straight down off of the ship, making me stumble and hit the large metal wall to my left. The other three Pelicans flew out of the hangar as the Prefect got ready to go back out of the atmosphere.

"Third squad! Orders came in early! We are going to be capturing a large office building outside of the compound we are assaulting, we will then defend against the bastards until further orders, stay frosty!" Jast yelled, several veterans pounded their boots on to the floor of the Pelican.

I looked over my shoulder, my MA-5B was still slung over my shoulder, my Magnum still sitting in its holster. I then turned back to my front, focusing down the sights of the M247. My HUD flared to life with targets, connecting to the gun and helping me aim as the Pelican flew.

"Get ready!" The pilot yelled from the cockpit, green plasma started exploding around our plane, causing it to shake with ferocity.

The bird landed, I ejected a couple of rounds towards an elite before running out and pulling my MA-5B off of my back. I followed Jast into the large building, the only engineer in our squad started working on the elevator while everyone else made barricades out of counters and couches that were sitting around in the lobby, I stared in awe, watching them work.

Once the barricades were set up, the engineer was done, half of the squad went up while the others stayed, including me.

We sat at the barricade, our guns aimed at the door of the building. Suddenly pink crystals broke through the windows, smashing into the cover we were hiding behind, exploding after three seconds, sending pink shards around us. Then came plasma, I could make out the shapes of little aliens running around ahead, I fired at them, my aim shaky from the initial barrage of gunfire.

I heard a gurgling noise, I looked to my left to see a Marine with one of the pink crystals in his throat, it started glowing so I dove away, watching his esophagus explode and shower everyone around him with blood.

The doors were smashed open and the smaller aliens, Grunts started pouring through, rushing for the barricades while firing tiny pistols at us. I got up, wiping some blood from my HUD glasses before opening up on the Grunts, they fell to the floor with blue blood splattering behind them, some even threw up their hands and started running before an angry yell from behind them sent them charging again.

I reloaded, the Grunts were starting to come in lesser numbers, but I could hear machine guns clicking to my right, then the sound of metal clanging to the floor, I looked to my right and saw a massive alien, a glowing sword in its hand with a Marine impaled on it, our line broke and we started to fall back, firing at the massive armored creature.

It literally shrugged off our bullets, throwing its first victim to the floor before charging to claim another prize. The Marine in front of me was caught in the shoulder by plasma, he fell to the floor screaming before he was quickly silenced by another glowing sword.

"Oh fuck!" I yelled, starting to panic.

The floating sword turned to me, another armored creature appeared before my eyes, walking towards me with its sword raised. I did the one thing any sensible person would do, I emptied my clip into the bastard, my bullets spraying into his armor, seemingly deflecting off of it, the Marines around me started to help, a glowing yellow light flickered around it, the alien charged me, I pulled the trigger again and heard a sound any Hollywood director would be proud of: click.

I quickly flipped the gun over my shoulder, my magnetic clamps attaching it to my back before unholstering my pistol, but it was already in my face. It reeled its hand back, slapping me across the face, sending me tumbling to the floor, my helmet rolling off of my head and stopping in front of the elevator. The elevator... I think to myself, I scramble for the entrance, firing my magnum blindly behind me.

The creature roared and charges, I make it into the elevator before it runs in, collapsing on top of me. Wait what?

In front of the elevator stands an ODST, along with the remaining Marines from our defense slowly loading into the elevator, the ODST backs in, the door closes before the other warrior could run in.

I stand up, the ODST slams my helmet into my chest, I grab it, placing it on my head.

"Tighten those straps, kid." The ODST says, turning away from me.

"Defense, come in, what the hell is going on down there?" I hear Jast ask.

"We got wiped across the floor, Corporal." My HUD marked the voice as Specialist Mike Carson.

"Fucking hell, good enough but we need to buy more time, the assault isn't going so well, we only diverted a quarter of the enemy reinforcements." Jast says. A fucking quarter? I think to myself.

The elevator dings and we are on the fifth floor, the top floor of the building, we are met by barricades and more Marines, aiming at the door. We all pile out, someone shoots the elevator console when everyone had exited, the doors close and the elevator console shuts off.

"Right! Carson, get your team at the stairs and set up, I want these bastards dead before they reach this floor!" Jast yelled from behind the barricade.

"Yes Corporal!" He yells back, I hadn't even realized he was leading our fire team until now, but I followed him anyway, we entered the stairway only to be met with several bird-like aliens, or the Jackal as my HUD marked them.

It was a simple concept of ten Marines opening fire point blank with assault rifles on the weak birds, sending them falling back down the stairs, twitching. A roar came from the bottom of the staircase, I watched as Elites clambered up the stairs, slow as hell.

We all put our guns over the railing, aiming down at them.

"Fuck'em up!" Carson yelled, our assault rifles opened up with a roar of our own, raining hell on to the struggling aliens.

"Anybody get that recorded?" Someone yelled.

"Our HUDs are always recording you dipshit!" Someone else replied, bringing some chuckles from the broken Marines.

The joking stopped as soon as the other Elites realized that we were up there and started firing plasma rapidly towards us, melting the railing and nailing a Marine under his helmet, he falls to the floor, not a word or time to scream.

"Frags! Throw'em all!" Carson yelled. The nine Marines left pulled the pins off of their grenades, rolling them under the melting railing down on to the Elites.

Several explosions later, the firing stopped.

"Carson, this is Jast, the enemy is sending reinforcements, get back to our position."

"Copy, how many to be exact?" Carson asked.

"The enemy has reverted their attention from attacking the compound with the other three squads to bringing this place to the ground." He answered.

"Of fucking course!" Carson yelled, having already cut the line, we followed him through the cubicles back to Jast, gunfire was emitting from down the hall. Five Marines and the ODST were firing out of a window, plasma meeting them by flying around them, they ran over to us before a low humming emitted, Covvies started jumping through the same window, about twenty of them before they stopped, a purple flash flew by the window behind us.

We opened up on the reinforcements, they took cover and returned fire. Plasma flew directly next to my head, I crouched down and fired a couple of shots towards a Jackal, causing its head to snap up, purple blood flying behind it as it fell.

I heard a roar, four elites, holding energy swords charged us, forcing us to slowly move back while they ran. The head elite went down, but the biggest one made it to us, impaling a Marine and flinging him out of the window next to us before finally dying, causing the plasma fire to cease.

"That was it? Twenty of them?" Carson asked in disbelief.

"There's probably more." Jast said.

A green bolt flew through the window next to me, flying in front of my face, inches from hitting before smashing into the wall to my left.

"Sniper! Find cover!" Jast yelled.

More sniper rounds flew through the windows as we jumped into cover, along with a couple of plasma rounds.

"They are using the building adjacent to us!" A PFC yelled.

"Fuck it! Down the stairs Third, were getting the fuck out of dodge!" Jast yelled, leading the way down the staircase.

We went down a set before Jast took a bolt to the chest, from a floating plasma rifle.

Another elite materialized, my HUD actually bothering to mark this one as a Spec Op. It charged towards me, pulling out an energy sword while the squad opened up. The elite rushed me, slashing me across the chest before I blacked out, my gun clattering to the floor, my hands holding the slash across my armor.

"Shrake!" I heard through my muddled thoughts.

I felt a slap across my face, I woke up, sitting straight up, looking around.

"Glad to have you back, pussy, sword didn't even pierce your undersuit." Jast said, picking up my gun and handing it me.

"How long was I out?" I ask him.

"Three minutes." He said, I noticed the elites corpse joined by two other Marines, one of them headless while the other had two large stab wound in his chest, there dog tags were removed and we moved on. That made us a ten man squad in total, we already lost eleven other Marines in the first hour of fighting.

We slowly made it out of the building, outside wasn't much better. The saddest thing was no matter how many Covvies we had killed, human casualties ended up being worse, outside was the occasion shell of a wraith and a corpse of an elite, but the amount of civilians and local Army men on the ground was sickening. We walked out an examined this mess before continuing forward, the other three squads had already retreated, now were jogging out of the city into the small forest that was on the outskirts, I wasn't paying too much attention on where we were going, I was just keeping my finger wrapped around the trigger. We entered the forest, that's when things went to hell.

I heard a rustling sound to my left, with no hesitation I shot the small bush covering whatever had just made that noise, an alien scream filled the forest as the Jackal fell to the ground, looking at this one closely, it was bigger than the other birds we had faced inside the building.

"Skirmishers!" Jast yelled, we started going faster, our motivation was the needle rounds flying by our heads as we crashed through our new hell.

I heard a scream, this one human, I stopped and turned around to see a Marine with a glowing needle in his shoulder, I ran over, ripping it from his armor and throwing it away, causing the wound to spurt out blood. We kept running, I was surprised that Marine wasn't crying his eyes out, must've been adrenaline but at that point it was the only thing keeping us alive.

I heard another cry, I saw Jast collapse, a plasma round had collided with his back, causing him to lurch forward. I ran past him and the circle of Marines providing cover while Carson checked him.

"Shrake! Where the fuck are you going?!" I heard in my comms channel, I cut the line quickly, my breath starting to get tagged as I sprinted through the forest.

I burst out from the trees, several needle rounds following me. I noticed a small neighborhood, nobody was there, but the place seemed familiar and safe.

Oh fuck.

I sprinted to the first house, aiming my gun at the door. With my left leg I broke it down, walking in and looking around. There was one broken window, the floor was covered in blood. I took a step forward, quickly switching my gun to the left side, a corpse was sitting on the floor, a small girl. I nearly dropped my gun, but I shook my head and continued on, gingerly stepping over my former sister.

I mounted the first stair, pushing myself forward upstairs, I pushed the door to my dad's room, the door fell forward, collapsing. I saw a body, with no head, a Civilian Standard Issue Magnum site next to him, the body of an elite slumped in the corner. I took a shaky breath, falling to my knees and staring at my dad.

_  
I watched as the pretty lady's head explode, her body falling back and slumping against the cave wall. I dropped the Magnum, staring defiantly at Scar Face, he was nodding in approval, he stepped forward, clapping his hand down on to my shoulder.

"Welcome." He said, grinning and walking away, the recruiter watched me quietly as I walked over to one of the Innies, the man was tall and had blonde hair, I couldn't see his eyes behind his sunglasses. He handed me an assault rifle, which I nearly dropped when he let go of it. I heard some snickers, but I lifted it and grabbed a magazine, slamming it into the gun.

"Fellow saviors of the Outer Colonies!" I heard someone yell.

We all turned and looked up at him, the man was about 5'9 and had a black beard with blue eyes, an M7 SMG in his hands.

"Today we go on our first mission, exciting? Right?" He asked several answered with cries of defiance, against the UNSC, and CMM.

"If you would all follow me, please." He said, walking towards the exit, we all followed, someone took my rifle and handed me a small pistol instead, I glared at him but he just shrugged and kept following the bearded man.

We exited the cave, a civilian aircraft was sitting outside, our people plus five others were boarding it, we flew off to a different part of the planet, which took about an hour of staring awkwardly at all the people who knew each other, but not me, not yet.

"Ten seconds!" The pilot yelled, the craft starting to descend.

The craft hit the ground and we exited, rushing towards a gathering of people, all looking around anxiously.

"Right, Satera cell, on me!" I heard, Satera was the city closest to my home, back on the other side of the planet.

We moved into a club, everyone there seemed drunk and was having a good time, until the bearded man shot a round into the ceiling, diverting all attention to him.

"Everyone down!" He yelled, almost everyone complied except for three men and a woman, all reaching for magnums, CMM patches on their right arms. The men all looked similar, buzz cut and the fresh determination of a soldier, the woman had long blonde hair and had the look of a veteran in her eyes, maybe she was in the Rain Forest Wars.

I didn't get to find out as our cell opened up on the Marines, sprawling their bloodied bodies across the counter. The second everything calmed down, somebody screamed.

"911 we need-." She started, cut off by a bullet entering her brain.

I shakily breathed out, the barrel of my pistol smoking. The man behind me cheered, slapping me on the back, but he was silenced by the bearded man.

"Spread out! Cop'll be here soon!" He yelled, I walked upstairs, crouching next to a window, my pistol aimed down at the street as police sirens filled the air, even a Pelican loaded with armored men landed in the middle of the street, engaging one of the other cells here with us, the fire fight dragged on for ten minutes before the police stopped firing, the armored men moved behind their cars, the fire fight them resumed and stopped again, several police officers lie dead, but I couldn't imagine the losses on our end.

I heard an order from downstairs, the sound of doors being broken open and civvies screaming filled the building as police officers moved in. Then everything went black as a large explosion filled the building.

_  
I stood up, walking out of the house, comms started to fill my helmet again, and before long Jast realized I was still alive.

"Shrake, you doing alright? Where'd you run off to?" He asks.

"I'm just fine, I diverted their attention north bound, I'm currently taking cover inside of the last building down the street." I replied, a plasma bolt flies past me, and I double time it to the house I told Jast about.

I use my shoulder and my momentum to smash through the door, stumbling and falling on to the floor, a scream seemed to shake the house. I looked up, a young girl, must've been about seventeen was standing in front of me, her face in an expression of horror, she seemed to calm down a little bit after realizing I was human, but then she crossed her arms, staring at my polarized visor.

"Who the hell do you think you are? Breaking into my house like that!" She yells, causing me to quickly stand up, putting a finger to my lips and pushing her out of sight of the door.

"What is it?" She whispers, she seemed scared now.

I put my finger up to my lips again, only one hand gripped around my rifle, an alien grunting noise came from the door, then the sound of stomping on hard wood, making its way towards us.

I raise my rifle, a grunt comes into sight, it looked bored. I jumped forward as quietly as possible, hooking my rifle around its throat and dragging it backwards, I then take off its gas mask, methane quietly leaks out as the Grunt chokes for respiration. The little alien then slumps forward, I quietly placed it down, looking over at the girl, who had her hand up to her mouth and looked like she was ready to scream.

She lifted her hand, opening her mouth to speak, but I quickly put my hand over her mouth again, more footsteps. Her breath was getting quicker, sending warm puffs of air and moistening my hand slowly.

I sling my rifle, drawing my magnum and slowly backing up with her, we make it to the back door before another alien comes around the corner, where it is immediately blasted by my sidearm, doing a small spin before hitting the ground, it was a jackal.

I hear grunts of alarm, and I push the girl out the door, holstering my pistol and unslinging my rifle quickly, aiming it down the hallway, adrenaline pulsing through my veins.

When nothing came I ran out, slamming the door shut behind me.

"What was that?" She asks.

"Covvies, keep moving." I tell her, starting a jog towards the forest, the first house in the neighborhood would have to do until third squad got here.

"Shrake, where are you?" Jast asks.

"Moving up to the first house, I got a civilian."

"Woah, slow down, which house?"

"The one closest to the forest." I answer.

"Right, were on the way, keep that civilian safe, Jast out." He says, cutting the line.

We moved into the house, this door was unlocked so luckily I didn't have to break it down. Explosions in the distance fade away as I close the door, taking off my helmet, against UNSC regulations, and running a shaky hand through my hair.

"You never told me your name." The girl says quietly.

"Shrake." I tell her, slumping against the wall next to the door.

She rolls her eyes. "Your first name, dumbass

I depolarizer my HUD, looking her in the eyes, she had green eyes and black hair, she had more of an adult look about her, but right now she was giving me a death glare that could silence an elephant.

"Ryan." I tell her. "UNSC Marine Corps, I lost my squad and found you sitting in your house." I answer cheerfully.

She just sighs, sitting down next to me, my HUD polarized again and I can hear her mentally groan, almost causing me to laugh my ass off.

"Peyton." She answers,

"Got it." I tell her, just as Jast opens another line with me.

"Shrake, were outside get the fuck out here." He says, cutting the line.

"Well, Peyton if you would please follow me." I tell her, standing up with a grunt before rolling my shoulders and unholstering my MA-5B, the ammo count read zero. I ejected the magazine, letting it clink to the floor before pushing a new one into the chamber.

Peyton stands, and follows me as I walk out of the small house, only to be met with six other Marines. We had nine last I checked.

"Were going, bailing from this shit hole for now." Jast says, obviously distressed. "There's an FOB not to far from here, we'll head that way and rest until Greene decides to pull his thumb out of his ass." He says, my eyes widen, nobody ever spoke about their CO like that it seemed, but this made me respect him a little bit more.

We kept walking, Carson was talking with Peyton the entire time, but she didn't seem to respond, staring ahead at my back, at least that's what she was doing when I looked back there.

"So, where's your parents?" Carson asks.

"Fuck off." She says, he seems to back away after that.

"Listen bitch-." He starts.

Out of nowhere a plasma bolt slams into his chest, causing him to fall backwards, his helmet falling off behind him. We all hit the deck, firing on the source, three red elites stood in the trees, firing plasma rifles at us while one of the Marines was fumbling for Carson's reserve bio foam, quickly applying it and causing Carson to scream in pain.

"Move it! Double time and were out!" Jast yells, causing me to jump to my feet, for the first time in this fire fight I start to fire, emptying my magazine into one of them, causing it to fall over dead. It's friend roared in anger and pulled an energy sword from its belt, throwing its rifle away and charging towards me, causing the four Marines not including me to open up, killing the Elite.

"Carson's good! We gotta go!" The Marine, Ramirez according to my HUD yelled.

We all ran as hard as we could, no more plasma rounds were flying, but there was an urgency for Jast to move.

"Corporal! Why are we still running? There's no more of them!" I called up the line of Marines, huffing as energy drained from my body.

"Shut up! Were being hunted!" Jast yells, the way he said the word gave me motivation to keep running. Out of nowhere an explosive green blob of plasma flew past, literally disintegrating a tree.

"Hunters! Light'em up!" Jast yelled to us, we turned around and crouched down, spreading out horizontally while the behemoths charged through the forest. We all opened fire, the beasts raised what seemed like a shield, deflecting our rounds and continuing to charge.

"Grenade!" Jast yells, I see a small sphere fly towards them, exploding and causing one to trip, it quickly gets up and charges again, they were about twenty feet away from the closest Marine who was now backing up slowly, emptying his clip into the Hunter.

Hunter number 1 reached the Marine, slapping him with its shield, sending the Marine flying into a tree, a loud crack is audible through the trees, the Marine's body falls to the ground, unmoving. But that wasn't enough, the Hunter used its massive foot to stomp the soldier's head in, blood splatters all around them. Meanwhile Hunter number 2 was closing in on me.

"Shoot the orange!" Jast yells, I wasn't sure what he meant, but I kept up the fire, after my third clip it fell dead in front of me, orange blood leaking from all of the holes in its corpse. The loudest and scariest road pierced my ears, the remaining Hunter was charging us, faster than before. I noticed a flash of black behind the Hunter, Peyton was picking up the dead soldier's MA5B, awkwardly firing it at the Hunter's back. The monster turns firing a fuel rod blast at her, she drops the gun and runs out of the way, screaming.

The Hunter charges her, I fire at its back, standing and running towards it.

"Hey fuckface!" I yell, it doesn't turn so I jump on its back, which caught its attention, it spins, trying to throw me off, but I had different plans. I pulled a fragmentation grenade from my webbing, pulling the pin and shoving it into the colony of worms at the armored beasts neck.

I jump off, rolling and tackling Peyton to the ground as another fuel rod glob flys over us. I hear a roar, and the sound of the frag going off, obliterating the Hunter.

Only now did I realize I was on top of Peyton, she was breathing heavily, her eyes glazed over. I stand up, she does the same, nodding to me, I was surprised that she didn't yell at me for tackling her while I had titanium armor on.

"Thank you." She says, I nod. We kept walking.

_  
Authors note  
Hello, people if any, who have read this fic, I thank you for support, if any, and hope you enjoyed this chapter. Did you like it? We aren't done with this planet but I still thought it was in order to write a really long chapter so that I can use it as motivation for future chapters. Thank you all for reading, hope you enjoyed.

See ya next time.  
-Rsk


	4. The Rise of Third

Chapter three: The Rise of Third  
Date: February 17th, 2531, UNSC Calendar  
Private Ryan Shrake, UNSC Marine Corps  
First Contact Wars

I closed the door behind me after saying goodbye to Peyton, she was headed to a refugee camp, we had fallen back to the FOB and received our welcome from a battalion of Covvies who we engaged in a firefight for about an hour before finally driving them off, I still hadn't been hit for whatever reason. I looked around the room before falling to my knees and staring forward, my adrenaline was wearing off and I realized how many Marines we had just lost in third squad alone. I bury my face in my hands, causing my helmet to roll off my head and hit the ground in front of me, I didn't tighten the straps very often, allowing the slightest things to knock it off.

For the first time in what seemed like forever I started crying, imagining the fire fight inside and outside of the building, third squad alone had a eighty five percent casualty rate, replacements were probably on the way but it was still insane how the enemy manages to kill so many of us with such little force.

I hear a knock on the door, it creaks open as I turn around, Khan and Locke enter the room, Locke seemed beyond energized and Khan was quiet.

"Shrake! I got PFC!" Locke announced, his eyes sparkling with joy.

"Nice..." I answer, picking my helmet up and sitting down.

"What's up?" Khan asks, sitting next to me.

I look over at him, my HUD depolarizes, probably showing my red eyes from crying. "My squad got out with five guys." I answer.

"Well shit." Locke and Khan say almost simultaneously.

"Yeah, my first deployment, too." I say, bitterly.

"Not like you were leading." Khan said, staring at me, I picked up my head, meeting his stare. "I guess your right." I said, standing up.

"I'm gonna go on that makeshift wall the Army built out there, take out my anger on a Grunt passing by or something." I said, Khan nodded, Locke just grinned as I walked out.

I picked up my rifle by the door, attaching it to my back before putting my helmet back on, I blinked a couple of time, the visions of my dead comrades filling up my mental capacity, it was breaking me slowly. When I got to the wall I crouched down, setting my rifle up and checking my HUD for music of any sorts.

I sighed, ONI firewalls didn't like me poking around music files during a technical combat mission, so of course I decided to break in. Some Army goon had decided to upload a bunch of music from about four hundred years ago, I opened the file and turned on a song.

Ohh yeah...

Won't you follow me? Into the Jungle.

Ain't no god on these streets, into the jungle...

The song continued these lyrics, making me bob my head to the beat, a Grunt walked into sight and I shot him once the singer said the word 'Jungle', the blue blood from its chest sprayed the brick wall behind it, making some kind of graffiti that made some of the Marines around me laugh.

"Third squad, this is Jast, move to the command tent, I will be waiting for you." Corporal Jast said over the radio.

"Gotcha, Cake Walk." I say, hopping down from the wall, my song had ended so I just turned it off, not bothering with it anymore. I walked to the command tent, I was confused when I was greeted by a full squad of Marines, reinforcements had come quickly.

"Marines!" Jast calls out from the front of the line. "The UNSC has decided that instead of shooting Covvies, we are going to the other side of this rock to take out an Innie cell who was responsible for the recent airport bombings, they decided to take cover here under UNSC operation, so were gonna fuck'em up, oorah?" He yells.

"Oorah!" We yell back, my cry was quieter, my mind was racing at the possibilities at which cell it could be. We left the area via Pelican and a half hour later, we descended next to a cave system that had markings on the front of it. The place looked too familiar.

We took cover in front of the place and sat there, Jast wouldn't tell us why or order us to move so we sat around, aiming at the entrance.

An audible creaking noise filled the landscape as the giant metal doors open, a squad of Innies pouring out and engaging our squad, the fire fight should've been over in minutes, but of course the new guys were dragging us down, including me.

I aimed at one of them, I pulled the trigger as my gun sprayed wildly, bullets flying by my head didn't make it much easier to aim. I pop up again, firing a burst off into one of the Innie's neck, he fell over with a choking noise that made me shudder. More Innies poured out, I started to hear frantic cries of Marines as the enemy got off more shots.

Suddenly, something unexpected happened. The sound of metal slamming into the ground went up around us, six ODST's jump out of their SOEIV's, spraying SMG's and M247's at the enemy, quickly killing them off.

We push up with the ODST's, stacking up on the door before entering and looking around, the ODST's turned on the flashlights on their big-ass helmets, we turned the flashlights from our gun's on, sweeping the entrance with ease.

"On me." Jast orders, we move behind him, no contact or any sound as we near the main area. We stack up on the door that leads into the place I had called home for only a day before kicking it down, Jast falls over as an earth shattering crack fills the room.

Scar face stands there next to the bearded one, Scar holds a M6 while the bearded one aims a rifle at us, did I mention the squad of Innies behind them?

They opened up on us, I quickly hooked my hand under Jast's armor, he groans as I pull him back which all things considered is a good sign. Jast had a big dent in his paldron, blood pouring out of it. Ramirez quickly relieved me of dragging him, the Marines now starting to toss flash bangs into the room, my helmet's ear pieces close, helping my ears when the flash bangs go off, we enter the room and kill them all.

I looked around, the bodies were being stacked while Jast, with the help of Ramirez examined a set of dog tags hanging by a large blood stain on a concrete wall. I almost cry out when I realize where the stain was from.

"Fuck!" He yelled, snatching the dog tags and walking out of the large room. Our squad follows, we walk out of the cave as the memories begin to flow.

I groan as I wake up, I try moving my arms but they refuse, I realized I was surrounded my rubble and pieces of concrete. I hear yelling, and more gun fire as I sit there, tears start to flow from the pain.

After awhile the gunfire ceases, I was still unsure on how I was alive, but I could feel my torn t-shirt with the burns from the explosive on the back of my arms and legs.

A bright light came out of seemingly nowhere, as my eyes adjust I see an ODST staring down at me, feminine look to her armor and a helmet with a pink stripe on it. I see my reflection on her polarized visor, my face was caked in dirt and my forehead was cut, that was all I could see before she turned and walked away.

I sat there in disbelief until she came back with another ODST, a male who started to help her lift the rubble off of me. The pain was agonizing, like I had broken every home in my body, which I probably had. The girl helps me out, I cry out when she pulls me up, her visor depolarizes. She had blue eyes and brown hair, she stared at me with a worried look on her face, much like a mother would to her son.

"C'mon, were getting you some help." The other ODST grunts, they both help me out of the destroyed building. I'm placed in an ambulance and rushed off to a hospital where I am fully treated, comfortable for once, until the ONI spook came.

"Hello." He says, sitting down, just me and him in my room.

I stare at him, not saying anything.

"I was watching some of the police dashboard cameras, and I was wondering, what were you doing in that club?" He asks me, a good question.

"I don't know." I answer.

"Kid, don't lie to me, I saw you in that window with your pistol, your one of the attackers." He says, opening a file and thumbing through it.

"I didn't know they were planning this." I answer, staring him in the eyes.

"I'm sure, your boss escaped before setting off that bomb to clean up the evidence, but he's got a broken link, now doesn't he?" The man asked, he reminded me of a rat, scrawny and his face seemed to just drill into you, like he could steal everything from you in a second.

"I guess so." I answer him.

"Not very talkative? That's OK, we have torture tables for that." He tells me, his eyes show me he was being deathly serious.

"I just wanted to let you know how long you are going to be in jail." He says.

"How long?" I ask him defiantly, but in reality I was scared.

"Two years, then you will be interrogated to see if we need to move you to high security and keep you there forever." He answers.

"Don't I get a trial?" I ask.

"Yes, of course, and if your family pays bail then I guess nothing will happen other than a reeducation class and probation." He says, sighing in distaste.

I nod, I knew my dad would probably pay it... Right?

We were loading back on to the Pelican, I couldn't stop looking at the cave system we were about to blow sky high.

Oh well.

We took off before the massive explosion shook the earth, headed back to base with everyone still intact. The Pelican shook violently as a pretty display of different colored plasma launched all around us, some of the deadly flak hitting the bird.

"Hang the fuck on!" The pilot screams from the cockpit, I heard the sound of glass breaking, I looked over at the cockpit from where I was sitting, the pilot was slumped over in her chair while her co pilot was freaking out.

"Renee!" He yelled, unhooking himself as the bird starts to go into a free fall to the ground. He shakes the pilot, but the falling velocity of the bird took him off his feet, the broken windshield sucking him out. His screams die out as the bird continues towards the ground.

"Marines! Strap in if you-." Everything went black.

I groaned, a good indication I was still alive. My vision slowly blurs as I start to sit up, but I am immediately halted by my spine exploding in pain, the crash must've broken some bones and hurt my back because of the amount of pain that was flowing through my system. I try sitting up again, this time my body allows it. I was lucky to be alive, my seat belt was severed and there was blood all around me, but no Marines. I look up and see my MA5B where I left it, attached to the wall, I grab it and pull back the bolt, walking out of the Pelican.

I hold my hand up to my eyes as the sun blinds me, when my eyes refocus I noticed the ground in front of me was stained in the blood of Marines and Covvies. More Marines were laying dead, about four, while the enemy had only taken two casualties. I sigh, trying to find the closest radio line for my HUD to connect to.

My radio connects, and is immediately filled with static, I was on my own again. "Fucking hell I'd better get promoted for this." I mumble to myself, jogging into the field in front of me.

I hear a low growl and I hit the dirt, flipping around to aim at the source. All of a sudden, I'm surrounded, elites with Spec ops armor and energy swords materialize around me, looking blood thirsty and pissed off. One of them growls something and the circle starts to close around me, I flip my gun around in a circle, watching them get closer. Another growl, and the elites stop except for one who dashes forward, slashing my gun in half. "Fuck!" I yell, falling backwards.

I hear a nasty gurgling sound, it seemed like they were all laughing, they all disappeared except for the one that had attacked me. "Pitiful." It spits, towering over me.

"Not so intimidating yourself." I reply, but in reality I was freaking out, this thing was talking to me like a human would.

It laughs and kicks me in the ribs, I cry out as a small crack comes from me. "Your nothing." It answers.

"Then why keep me alive, squid?" I ask weakly, holding my ribs.

"Curiosity." It answers, literally sitting down next to me, it's hand pressed against my back to keep me from standing. "You can only learn so much from our archives." It says.

"I'm an open book." I grimaced, groaning from the pressure on my back.

"Why do your females fight?"

"Same reason your's would, to kick some Xeno ass." I snark, I feel another blow connect to me, this time to the back of my knee.

"Do not play with me, vermin." It threatens.

"Go fuck yourself." I answer.

"Attention, all UNSC Marine Corps unit." Says a line on my HUD, it must've been strong.

I feel my helmet lifted off of my head and thrown away, I sigh and continue staring at the dirt.

"Your allies will not be able to save you here." It says with another laugh. I just groan, coughing some blood on to the dirt in front of me.

"Where is your home world?" The creature insists.

"Go fuck yourself." I answer, bracing for another hit. But the bit never comes.

The elite is cut down by gunfire, I cry out as my allies approach.

I feel a shaky hand grab my armor and start to pull me back, causing me to groan in pain. "Shh, your safe." A comforting female voice tells me as I get dragged.

I feel a needle enter my arm, and I black out.

I wake up in a hospital bed, surrounded my titanium plating. "Welcome back to the land of the living." I hear a voice say.

_  
Authors note  
Ladies and gentlemen, what you have just read is the third instant of Sins, I hope you enjoyed, let's go over some things.

So, talking elite interrogation? Sounds familiar? All credit goes to casquis, I have read his Halo story The Life twice now and I'm still following it, I thought it would be an interesting thing to have, but I'll try to be more original in the future, so I apologize.  
Also, Ryan gets to go back to his past once again to remember everything that happened, unless it's requested it's probably gonna be the last time I do that considering I don't picture Ryan being there for very long. Hope you all enjoyed.

1: Thanks for your support, sorry that it's a little cheesy, still working out the kinks.

Teenage Mexican Master Chief: Thanks for your support, hope you keep reading!  
Read on.  
-Rsk


	5. Time to Rest ( Not )

Chapter three: The Rise of Third  
Date: February 17th, 2531, UNSC Calendar  
Private Ryan Shrake, UNSC Marine Corps  
First Contact Wars

I closed the door behind me after saying goodbye to Peyton, she was headed to a refugee camp, we had fallen back to the FOB and received our welcome from a battalion of Covvies who we engaged in a firefight for about an hour before finally driving them off, I still hadn't been hit for whatever reason. I looked around the room before falling to my knees and staring forward, my adrenaline was wearing off and I realized how many Marines we had just lost in third squad alone. I bury my face in my hands, causing my helmet to roll off my head and hit the ground in front of me, I didn't tighten the straps very often, allowing the slightest things to knock it off.

For the first time in what seemed like forever I started crying, imagining the fire fight inside and outside of the building, third squad alone had a eighty five percent casualty rate, replacements were probably on the way but it was still insane how the enemy manages to kill so many of us with such little force.

I hear a knock on the door, it creaks open as I turn around, Khan and Locke enter the room, Locke seemed beyond energized and Khan was quiet.

"Shrake! I got PFC!" Locke announced, his eyes sparkling with joy.

"Nice..." I answer, picking my helmet up and sitting down.

"What's up?" Khan asks, sitting next to me.

I look over at him, my HUD depolarizes, probably showing my red eyes from crying. "My squad got out with five guys." I answer.

"Well shit." Locke and Khan say almost simultaneously.

"Yeah, my first deployment, too." I say, bitterly.

"Not like you were leading." Khan said, staring at me, I picked up my head, meeting his stare. "I guess your right." I said, standing up.

"I'm gonna go on that makeshift wall the Army built out there, take out my anger on a Grunt passing by or something." I said, Khan nodded, Locke just grinned as I walked out.

I picked up my rifle by the door, attaching it to my back before putting my helmet back on, I blinked a couple of time, the visions of my dead comrades filling up my mental capacity, it was breaking me slowly. When I got to the wall I crouched down, setting my rifle up and checking my HUD for music of any sorts.

I sighed, ONI firewalls didn't like me poking around music files during a technical combat mission, so of course I decided to break in. Some Army goon had decided to upload a bunch of music from about four hundred years ago, I opened the file and turned on a song.

Ohh yeah...

Won't you follow me? Into the Jungle.

Ain't no god on these streets, into the jungle...

The song continued these lyrics, making me bob my head to the beat, a Grunt walked into sight and I shot him once the singer said the word 'Jungle', the blue blood from its chest sprayed the brick wall behind it, making some kind of graffiti that made some of the Marines around me laugh.

"Third squad, this is Jast, move to the command tent, I will be waiting for you." Corporal Jast said over the radio.

"Gotcha, Cake Walk." I say, hopping down from the wall, my song had ended so I just turned it off, not bothering with it anymore. I walked to the command tent, I was confused when I was greeted by a full squad of Marines, reinforcements had come quickly.

"Marines!" Jast calls out from the front of the line. "The UNSC has decided that instead of shooting Covvies, we are going to the other side of this rock to take out an Innie cell who was responsible for the recent airport bombings, they decided to take cover here under UNSC operation, so were gonna fuck'em up, oorah?" He yells.

"Oorah!" We yell back, my cry was quieter, my mind was racing at the possibilities at which cell it could be. We left the area via Pelican and a half hour later, we descended next to a cave system that had markings on the front of it. The place looked too familiar.

We took cover in front of the place and sat there, Jast wouldn't tell us why or order us to move so we sat around, aiming at the entrance.

An audible creaking noise filled the landscape as the giant metal doors open, a squad of Innies pouring out and engaging our squad, the fire fight should've been over in minutes, but of course the new guys were dragging us down, including me.

I aimed at one of them, I pulled the trigger as my gun sprayed wildly, bullets flying by my head didn't make it much easier to aim. I pop up again, firing a burst off into one of the Innie's neck, he fell over with a choking noise that made me shudder. More Innies poured out, I started to hear frantic cries of Marines as the enemy got off more shots.

Suddenly, something unexpected happened. The sound of metal slamming into the ground went up around us, six ODST's jump out of their SOEIV's, spraying SMG's and M247's at the enemy, quickly killing them off.

We push up with the ODST's, stacking up on the door before entering and looking around, the ODST's turned on the flashlights on their big-ass helmets, we turned the flashlights from our gun's on, sweeping the entrance with ease.

"On me." Jast orders, we move behind him, no contact or any sound as we near the main area. We stack up on the door that leads into the place I had called home for only a day before kicking it down, Jast falls over as an earth shattering crack fills the room.

Scar face stands there next to the bearded one, Scar holds a M6 while the bearded one aims a rifle at us, did I mention the squad of Innies behind them?

They opened up on us, I quickly hooked my hand under Jast's armor, he groans as I pull him back which all things considered is a good sign. Jast had a big dent in his paldron, blood pouring out of it. Ramirez quickly relieved me of dragging him, the Marines now starting to toss flash bangs into the room, my helmet's ear pieces close, helping my ears when the flash bangs go off, we enter the room and kill them all.

I looked around, the bodies were being stacked while Jast, with the help of Ramirez examined a set of dog tags hanging by a large blood stain on a concrete wall. I almost cry out when I realize where the stain was from.

"Fuck!" He yelled, snatching the dog tags and walking out of the large room. Our squad follows, we walk out of the cave as the memories begin to flow.

I groan as I wake up, I try moving my arms but they refuse, I realized I was surrounded my rubble and pieces of concrete. I hear yelling, and more gun fire as I sit there, tears start to flow from the pain.

After awhile the gunfire ceases, I was still unsure on how I was alive, but I could feel my torn t-shirt with the burns from the explosive on the back of my arms and legs.

A bright light came out of seemingly nowhere, as my eyes adjust I see an ODST staring down at me, feminine look to her armor and a helmet with a pink stripe on it. I see my reflection on her polarized visor, my face was caked in dirt and my forehead was cut, that was all I could see before she turned and walked away.

I sat there in disbelief until she came back with another ODST, a male who started to help her lift the rubble off of me. The pain was agonizing, like I had broken every home in my body, which I probably had. The girl helps me out, I cry out when she pulls me up, her visor depolarizes. She had blue eyes and brown hair, she stared at me with a worried look on her face, much like a mother would to her son.

"C'mon, were getting you some help." The other ODST grunts, they both help me out of the destroyed building. I'm placed in an ambulance and rushed off to a hospital where I am fully treated, comfortable for once, until the ONI spook came.

"Hello." He says, sitting down, just me and him in my room.

I stare at him, not saying anything.

"I was watching some of the police dashboard cameras, and I was wondering, what were you doing in that club?" He asks me, a good question.

"I don't know." I answer.

"Kid, don't lie to me, I saw you in that window with your pistol, your one of the attackers." He says, opening a file and thumbing through it.

"I didn't know they were planning this." I answer, staring him in the eyes.

"I'm sure, your boss escaped before setting off that bomb to clean up the evidence, but he's got a broken link, now doesn't he?" The man asked, he reminded me of a rat, scrawny and his face seemed to just drill into you, like he could steal everything from you in a second.

"I guess so." I answer him.

"Not very talkative? That's OK, we have torture tables for that." He tells me, his eyes show me he was being deathly serious.

"I just wanted to let you know how long you are going to be in jail." He says.

"How long?" I ask him defiantly, but in reality I was scared.

"Two years, then you will be interrogated to see if we need to move you to high security and keep you there forever." He answers.

"Don't I get a trial?" I ask.

"Yes, of course, and if your family pays bail then I guess nothing will happen other than a reeducation class and probation." He says, sighing in distaste.

I nod, I knew my dad would probably pay it... Right?

We were loading back on to the Pelican, I couldn't stop looking at the cave system we were about to blow sky high.

Oh well.

We took off before the massive explosion shook the earth, headed back to base with everyone still intact. The Pelican shook violently as a pretty display of different colored plasma launched all around us, some of the deadly flak hitting the bird.

"Hang the fuck on!" The pilot screams from the cockpit, I heard the sound of glass breaking, I looked over at the cockpit from where I was sitting, the pilot was slumped over in her chair while her co pilot was freaking out.

"Renee!" He yelled, unhooking himself as the bird starts to go into a free fall to the ground. He shakes the pilot, but the falling velocity of the bird took him off his feet, the broken windshield sucking him out. His screams die out as the bird continues towards the ground.

"Marines! Strap in if you-." Everything went black.

I groaned, a good indication I was still alive. My vision slowly blurs as I start to sit up, but I am immediately halted by my spine exploding in pain, the crash must've broken some bones and hurt my back because of the amount of pain that was flowing through my system. I try sitting up again, this time my body allows it. I was lucky to be alive, my seat belt was severed and there was blood all around me, but no Marines. I look up and see my MA5B where I left it, attached to the wall, I grab it and pull back the bolt, walking out of the Pelican.

I hold my hand up to my eyes as the sun blinds me, when my eyes refocus I noticed the ground in front of me was stained in the blood of Marines and Covvies. More Marines were laying dead, about four, while the enemy had only taken two casualties. I sigh, trying to find the closest radio line for my HUD to connect to.

My radio connects, and is immediately filled with static, I was on my own again. "Fucking hell I'd better get promoted for this." I mumble to myself, jogging into the field in front of me.

I hear a low growl and I hit the dirt, flipping around to aim at the source. All of a sudden, I'm surrounded, elites with Spec ops armor and energy swords materialize around me, looking blood thirsty and pissed off. One of them growls something and the circle starts to close around me, I flip my gun around in a circle, watching them get closer. Another growl, and the elites stop except for one who dashes forward, slashing my gun in half. "Fuck!" I yell, falling backwards.

I hear a nasty gurgling sound, it seemed like they were all laughing, they all disappeared except for the one that had attacked me. "Pitiful." It spits, towering over me.

"Not so intimidating yourself." I reply, but in reality I was freaking out, this thing was talking to me like a human would.

It laughs and kicks me in the ribs, I cry out as a small crack comes from me. "Your nothing." It answers.

"Then why keep me alive, squid?" I ask weakly, holding my ribs.

"Curiosity." It answers, literally sitting down next to me, it's hand pressed against my back to keep me from standing. "You can only learn so much from our archives." It says.

"I'm an open book." I grimaced, groaning from the pressure on my back.

"Why do your females fight?"

"Same reason your's would, to kick some Xeno ass." I snark, I feel another blow connect to me, this time to the back of my knee.

"Do not play with me, vermin." It threatens.

"Go fuck yourself." I answer.

"Attention, all UNSC Marine Corps unit." Says a line on my HUD, it must've been strong.

I feel my helmet lifted off of my head and thrown away, I sigh and continue staring at the dirt.

"Your allies will not be able to save you here." It says with another laugh. I just groan, coughing some blood on to the dirt in front of me.

"Where is your home world?" The creature insists.

"Go fuck yourself." I answer, bracing for another hit. But the bit never comes.

The elite is cut down by gunfire, I cry out as my allies approach.

I feel a shaky hand grab my armor and start to pull me back, causing me to groan in pain. "Shh, your safe." A comforting female voice tells me as I get dragged.

I feel a needle enter my arm, and I black out.

I wake up in a hospital bed, surrounded my titanium plating. "Welcome back to the land of the living." I hear a voice say.

_  
Authors note  
Ladies and gentlemen, what you have just read is the third instant of Sins, I hope you enjoyed, let's go over some things.

So, talking elite interrogation? Sounds familiar? All credit goes to casquis, I have read his Halo story The Life twice now and I'm still following it, I thought it would be an interesting thing to have, but I'll try to be more original in the future, so I apologize.  
Also, Ryan gets to go back to his past once again to remember everything that happened, unless it's requested it's probably gonna be the last time I do that considering I don't picture Ryan being there for very long. Hope you all enjoyed.

1: Thanks for your support, sorry that it's a little cheesy, still working out the kinks.

Teenage Mexican Master Chief: Thanks for your support, hope you keep reading!  
Read on.  
-Rsk


	6. Evacuation Sucks

Chapter five: Evacuation sucks  
February 20th, 2531 UNSC Calendar  
Rullins II

We arrived at the fortified space port, tired as all hell, and beaten to utter shit a total of thirty Marines were dead from this campaign, and that was just our battalion, I'm sure everyone suffered more casualties, not even to mention the civilians.

Space craft were getting ready to take off when Khan an I walked past the loading area, helmets in our hands, headed for the barracks that had been set up by the wounded who were still able to do something. We stepped inside and closed the door, I collapse on to one of the cots, groaning. I rub my bad shoulder, the bandage still tightly wrapped around the wound.

I hear a pop, I look over at Khan, he starts drinking from the bottle of Scotch that he holds.

"Fucker, not wanting to share." I say, he looks over at me and screws the cap back on, tossing it to me.

I drink the rest of the bottle, Khan gives me a stare of death as I laugh at him, I stand, making sure not to knock my DMR off of the bed

"You fucker." He says, staring at the empty bottle.

"What? I was thirsty." I reply with a laugh.

"You fucker." He repeats, a smile starting to grow on his face.

We both break out laughing, I hear a clink as something falls out of Khan's pocket, the dog tags hit the floor, bounce once before settling, Khan and I stop laughing.

ID: 76629

UNSC Marine Corps

Private First Class Austin Locke, KIA.

The words on the dog tags haunted us on the way back to the space port, we both hang our heads in remembrance of our late friend. I drop the scotch bottle on to the floor, picking up my DMR rifle. I take it apart like I was taught in basic, I start cleaning it, wanting it to be working for the next time I fire it, which would be real soon at the rate things were going.

Three men step into the barrack, chuckling at a joke one had told them, they all wore Marine corps uniforms, Private tags on their shoulders. Their names on their uniforms marked them as J. Ramirez. D. Figel and R. Simmons, Simmons was tall, black skin and broad shoulders. Figel was about my height, my skin tone but black hair instead of my light brown, Ramirez had fair skin but wasn't black like Simmons, like the old Mexican population originally on Earth.

"Hello." Khan says, they look at us, they looked fresh, as of they had just gotten here.

"What ship are you boys from?" I ask them, one of them starts to speak but is cut off by the tall black man in their group.

"The Firefly." He answers, the other two nod, then the alarm went off.

But the alarm wasn't the normal operation alarm, it was one of those danger alarms that warned you when something really had was happening.

"Attention all civilians, please, in a orderly fashion, go to your designated evacuation craft." A voice over the income says.

I stand, getting my armor on and picking up my DMR, looking around at everyone else. By the time I was dressed, so were they, we jogged out of the barracks, civilians were doing the opposite of calmly going to their ships, but I soon found out why.

A green bolt flew past me, knocking a woman off of her feet, the bolt flies through her and hits the ground before her blood starts to flow. The area erupts in screams, this being one of three space ports, there weren't many civilians, but enough to trample me given the occasion.

Another carbine bolt fires, more follow before we get on cover, waiting for the civilians to go past us. I hear a cry for help, a little boy pulls on his fathers arm, trying to drag his corpse away from the plasma fire.

"Fuck!" Simmons yells. "Cover me!" He runs out of cover, towards the little boy.

"Get the hell back here!" I call out, just as a purple beam tears through his skull, sending him tumbling in front of the boy. The boy cries out again, he couldn't have been more than twelve, still hoping his planet wasn't falling apart.

The kid shakes Simmons, blood leaks from the head wound, but the child seems persistent. He looks around the body and finds his Magnum, aiming it at something I couldn't see before taking a plasma bolt to his little chest, killing him instantly.

Ramirez cries out, starting towards the body before Figel stops him.

"He's dead, John." He says darkly, Ramirez shakes as he slides down the wall, his head in his hands.

"I didn't sign up to see my friend die, Dan." He says, choking out.

"Yes you did, we all did." Khan answers.

"What the fuck would you know? You still got your friend." He says, motioning towards me, Figel looks hurt for a second, but manages to keep straight.

"Private First Class Austin Locke, KIA from Pelican crash, the only one that died." Khan says, Khan and I switch places on the wall so he can see better.

Ramirez quiets, we flip around the corner, guns up and ready. A patrol of Grunts clambers over the fortification loaded with dead humans, we open fire on them and dispatch them with relative ease.

Banshees soar overhead, going for one of the evacuation crafts before promptly being scared off by a Scythe AA turret, which made itself a large target for any genocidal alien in the area. We take cover next to the fortification, climbing up on it and looking out into the trees where several large squads of aliens sit, waiting.

Ramirez hits the deck as a plasma round flies near his head. The aliens spring up as we hop off the wall, sprinting for the middle of the camp where the Marines have organized a force. Second platoon and third squad were the only troops available for defense of this particular space port, while the rest of the battalion was trying to find civilians and Covvies still in the area.

Out of seemingly nowhere a glob of green plasma knocks me off my feet, a civilian warthog explodes, causing several other vehicles to blow up, sending shrapnel and super heated particles everywhere. Our small squad hits the ground as dirt rains all around us, I look around, trying to see through the fog.

The fog clears and the aliens who has just been in front of our horizontal line were gone, only two remained. The two aliens, an elite in general armor and a brute in the fanciest headdress I had ever seen, both seem very high ranking, the brute unhooks a giant gravity hammer from its back, then pulling a small plasma pistol from its side, holding each with one hand. The elite unhooks two energy swords from its belt, activating them. They stare at us and start walking in our direction, I go into a crouch and I fire a round at the brute, a golden energy flickers around the brute as my bullet impacts it's chest, which seems to break the trance. Figel and Ramirez are first to react, both unhooking flash bangs from their armor and throwing them. Figel's flash fell short but Ramirez's detonated straight into the elite's face, making the brute roar.

"These fuckers are the best of friends, aren't they?" Khan asks as the brute leaps towards us.

"Kind've like us." I admit, watching the ape.

"But not as badass." Khan confirms, I laugh and we roll out of the way as the brute slams the hammer into the pavement, lifting me off of the ground as I roll and then throwing me back on to the cracked concrete.

"Fuck'em!" Figel yells as he empties his MA5B clip into the brute's back, the giant ape turns and fires a blob of plasma into Figel's chest, knocking him over and causing him to scream in pain. I fire three more rounds into the brute's back, causing it to turn on me. The brute leaps forward again, never failing to surprise me. A swing that would've taken off my head was cut short by sustained fire to the brute's back from Figel, who was now leaning against a building. The brute roars in anger, the golden flicker disappearing. I scramble back, still on the ground as I pull my magnum from its place at my side, aiming at the brutes head.

"Bang bang, motherfucker." I say as I pull the trigger, sending it's brain matter flying out of the back of its head. I cry out in victory, my head going back down to the concrete, making me look up at the sky.

"Ramirez!" I hear Figel cry.

Right, forgot about the elite.

I sit up and I look over at Ramirez, who was in an interesting predicament, he jumps back as the elite slashes at him, instead hitting the air and roaring at the annoyance of the situation. Ramirez opens up with his MA5B, the gun clicks empty before the elite slashes it into two pieces. Ramirez pulls out his magnum, still backing up, the elite jumps forward, and knocks the pistol from his hand before he can escape. The Marine pulls his combat knife from it's magnetic holster at his belt, holding it up. I can only watch as the elite lunges forward, slashing Ramirez's arm clean off. Before the young Marine can react, the elite is behind him, holding one energy sword at his back and one at his throat.

"Away." It growls, which triggers the soldier in us all. We all aim our guns at the alien, I hear Ramirez cry out as the elite starts to walk with him, the wound where his arm had once been was partially cauterized, but there was still blood leaking out.

"Let him go!" Figel yells at the massive alien.

I see movement as Ramirez lashes against the elite. We all open up on the general, it throws Ramirez forward, not having time to kill him. The general jumps up on to the roof of a building and disappears. A carbine round flies past me as I run towards Ramirez. He lays on the ground, his eyes streaming with tears, Figel drags him into cover, and I follow as the rest of the Covenant appears from seemingly nowhere.

"This is UNSC Frozen Luck to any units in Prefect battle group, does anybody copy, over?" I hear in my helmet.

"This is Private Shrake to Frozen Luck, I copy! Were losing Ghale refugee camp, a lot of covvies here! Immediate request for support, any support!" I yell, flipping around the corner and emptying my magazine into an elite, ending its life.

"I know this is a bad time, but did anybody else think its weird that a higher rank brute and a higher rank elite were fighting together?" Khan yells, firing at the enemy.

"No fucking clue!" I yell, looking away as Ramirez screams from the bio foam on his arm, or what was left of it.

"This is Frozen Luck, hit the deck boys, salvo inbound." I hear through my helmet.

The entire enemy line gets riddled with shrapnel as the rounds explode, decimating the entirety of the enemy force, except for one purple structure, a glowing antenna remains, we stare at it, the structure sits behind their lines, which could only mean one thing.

"Frozen Luck, this is Shrake again, I think the enemy requested reinforcements using some type of antenna, unsure of what to do next." I say into my radio.

"Right, we have contacted the rest of your battalion, ETA to your current position is fifteen mikes via Pelican, so you'll have to disable it." The crewman replies cheerfully.

"Fuck, Shrake out." I answer, cutting the channel.

"Well, let's go disable the beacon thingie." Khan says cheerfully, we leave Figel with Ramirez as we jog towards the structure, the four legs that support it, a small box sticks out of the main body, I open it to reveal non complex wiring, still complex enough to make me scratch my head in wonder.

"Well, time for the old fashion way." I say as I unholster my magnum, firing four shots into the wiring. The wires ignite, sending sparks flying into my face, making my face explode in pain, I scream as I fall over, Khan immediately kneeling down to help.

The beacon stops glowing.

_  
Authors note

Well hello, I'm happy to announce that I lied, this is not the final battle on this planet, but it is for Private Shrake. Wait what? Well, if you check out the new description of this story, I thought it would be cool to revolve around multiple main characters in different branches, which is going to be fun to write, and hopefully to read.

Hope you enjoyed, review like and favorite, show this to your friend, sister, mother, and your friends sister, once again I hope you enjoyed.  
Read on ladies and gentlemen.  
-Rsk


	7. Metal Coffins

Chapter VI: Metal Coffins

Rullins II, Outer colonies  
February 20th, 2531 UNSC Calender  
Sergeant Anson Hawkins  
ODST Jaguar platoon, squad two

I sigh inwardly, knowing this mission was not going to end well. Taylor and Gunny were sitting next to me, helmets off, despite being in a combat mission, talking about their stupid relationship, talking like nothing has happened. I always have my ODST helmet on, polarized at all times, only few have seen my face, which sounds fucking stupid but only special people should be able to see what war has done to me.

"Taylor, your awesome." Gunny says quietly, she laughs and leans up against him closing her eyes.

I stand up, hoisting my M247L on to my shoulder and walking out.

"Hawkins! Where ya goin'!?" Gunny asks. I hold my middle finger up in his direction, I honestly hope it sent the right message.

"Fucking.. Taylor I'll-" I shut the door to the large house behind me, I look around at the gray sky, I stand on the roof of the gigantic house we had taken cover in while the Covenant steamrolled the planet, word was that the Marines were having trouble in Ghale, but there was help, so I focused on my problems.

With that, the door behind me slides open, and Wolfe, or Gunny walks out and storms towards me, his helmet hooked under his arm. I set up my M247L on the side of the roof, aiming down at the empty street.

"Hawkins, whatsup?" Gunny asks me, crouching down next to me.

"You know I have a problem with your stupid relationship, right?" I ask him, he looks taken aback for a second before collecting himself.

"I do what I please, Brittany is an amazing girl." He answers firmly. "So was Haley." He adds.

I clench my fists, my finger a centimeter from the trigger. "I thought we agreed not to talk about Haley." I say as calmly as I can.

"Right, sorry Anson, I understand that this op has hit you pretty hard." He says.

_  
Two hours earlier  
On-board UNSC _Make My Day_

I smile at her, beautiful as always, black hair and seemingly fragile skin, but she was tough, tough enough to join the ODST's.

"You know we have an op soon, right?" She asks, her voice calming and quiet as she leans against me.

"Yeah." I say, wrapping my arm around her, one of the few times on the _Make My Day,_ I had taken my full armor off, Haley was special.

My helmet starts a transmission in the corner of the room where I had placed it carefully next to the rest of my battle armor, as I had for three years of service against the Covenant. "Anson get your fucking helmet on." I hear Gunny say, I walk over and I pull my armor on before locking my helmet to the chest piece.

"Finally, time to get ready for drop." Gunny tells me.

"Got it, I'm Oscar Mike." I say, professionally.

"Haley..." I start, taking off my helmet. Without a word she stands walking over to me and kissing me, warmth spreading from my chest to all around my body.

"Let's go." She says, walking over to get her armor on, I walk out and I grab my M247L from where it was sitting next to the door, walking out towards the drop bay. The place was small for a platoon of ODST's to drop in, with barely enough odd to fit all of us it was a surprise that they could for us and ammunition boxes into the room.

When I walk in, the first thing I do is start to fill up my rucksack with essentials, ammo, food, and water for the metal water bottle inside. The only food was the MRE's the UNSC passed as good food and the shitty energy bars that did their job, but were shitty.

"Officer on deck!" Someone calls out, we all stop what were doing and snap to attention.

"ODST's!" Second Lieutenant Parker yells we all stare at him, most of us with depolarized helmets on, but I had mine polarized, it became habit the second I stepped on to the _Make My Day_.

"When we jumped into this system, we were told we would be security for the civilian evacuation crafts, but now that another Covenant fleet has jumped into this system, so we will be dropping for bit and run strikes and killing the sons of bitches who are giving our Marines hell." Parker says to us, several Oorah's went up around the room.

"Your squad leader's will brief you on your way to the surface." The lieutenant explains.

We all line up in front of the man, squad two has one more member than the rest of the platoon, we had two snipers, Haley and Taylor, two Auto riflemen, Knight and myself, along with three CQB's, Ghost, Anderson, and Vulture, and of course our squad leader, Wolfe, or Gunny as I called him, particularly because it pisses him off when I call him that.

"ODST's! To your pods!" The lieutenant yells, we all give our best cheer as we run towards our designated pods, I place my M247L next to me in the weapon holder, my squad's faces pop up on my HUD, everyone now starting to polarize their visors.

"How do we go?!" Wolfe yells.

"Feet first Gunnery Sergeant!" We all scream.

"Fuck yes, pods ready for drop." He says.

I feel my stomach lurch as we leave the artificial gravity of the ship, already starting towards the planet's surface.

"Squad two, our objective is a wealthy neighborhood on the surface, HIGHCOM wants us to set up a nice little outpost there to allow recon and small scale raids on the enemy supply lines." Gunny says, I see several ODST's nod.

"Adjust your course and activate thrusters." Gunny says, I do what he says, the pod starting to overheat from the atmosphere.

"Oh god..." I hear in the radio.

That can't be good...

"Fuck! Pod malfunction... Oh god... Thrusters and drag chute broken." Anderson starts to panic, I see his head frantically looking around.

"Shit, Anderson, there's nothing we can-" Wolfe starts, but is cut off by Anderson.

"Go fuck yourself!" He screams, his pod hurdling towards the ground, the camera image of him is cut off when the pod hits the ground.

"Drag chutes." Wolfe says firmly, Anderson's death and last words obviously bothering him.

We plummet towards the ground, and our objective, the place stuck out, gigantic houses with built in security systems and AI's in each of them, these guys were wealthy before they had to abandon ship. That's why I smiled to myself when I crashed straight through one of the large houses, stopping on the bottom floor. I tap a button on my pod, the hatch flies off and I step out, grabbing my M247L and my rucksack.

"Regroup on beacon." Wolfe says calmly, I walk towards the entrance, opening the door and walking out, looking around with my large AR. I jog to the beacon where everyone else was meeting.

"Right, me, Taylor, and Hawkins are in this building, the rest of you are to spread out amongst these buildings while we wait for orders." Gunny tells us, I walk upstairs and I sit on the balcony, I place my M247L next to me, I pull out my magnum, I start to play with the slide while Gunny and Taylor come up here, Gunny had his arm around her. They sit down next to me, talking quietly, I pick up my AR and I walk away from them, leaning against a wall and closing my eyes until a private channel opens on my HUD.

"How're you holding up?" Haley asks through the channel, I smile despite myself, glad to have someone who cares.

"Pretty good, yourself?" I ask.

She sighs. "Ghost and Knight are talking about Anderson."

"Huh, Wolfe and Taylor are about to make out over here." I tell her, she laughs.

An explosion erupts in the distance, making us both go silent.

"Don't die." I tell her, she laughs.

"You'll die before I do, hun." She says, I grin as the channel shuts down.

"This is Wolfe, status report." Gunny says on comm.

"This is Vulture, I'm alone on building two, I see banshee fliers and-." A large explosion rips through the building in front of me, a banshee flies through the smoke.

"Vulture!" Wolfe screams through the radio, his vitals had flatlined, no body to recover, not even a pair of dog tags.

I hear a sniper shot, Haley was firing the SRS she was given, which meant there were high priorities in the area. I grab my AR and I set up, aiming down the street, two small patrols of elites and grunts approach, they were obviously doing something important to have banshees flying around for them.

One of the squids head explodes with a vapor trail, I smile and open up on the grunts, I hear Gunny open up with his SMG, the rounds spraying wildly which made a nice suppressive factor. I see Ghost run out of the house she was in, only to be cut down by a blue beam, Knight runs out and drags the body inside, prompting another beam shot only inches away. I see him grab her tags and run back inside.

Another vapor trail, Taylor was firing now at the sniper, she smiles in her depolarized visor, obviously a hit.

"Werner, Knight, get the fuck over here!" Wolfe shouts over comm, my eyes widen and I squeeze the trigger for a solid ten seconds while they run across the street, Knight is hit by a plasma bolt, he starts dragging himself towards the house when an eager minor jumps on top of him and stabs him with an energy sword. Haley point blanks the elite with a .50 caliber sniper rifle, making me grin.

My grin is cut short.

Haley is lit up by plasma, she runs inside but not before a beam cuts straight through her leg, causing her to trip into the house. I run downstairs, grabbing her breastplate and dragging her backwards, aiming my gun at the door as I did, a trail of blood leaking from her leg.

"Haley, stay with me, remember, I die first, that's what you said." I beg, leaning her against a wall and pulling out bio foam. A glowing grenade flies into the room, I protect Haley with my body, the heat wearing the back of my armor.

"Go." She whispers, looking at me.

"I can't do that." I tell her, tears starting to stream down my face as I depolarize my visor. A pool of blood was forming around her, she flatlined.

"No..." I mutter, taking her dog tags and rifle, dashing upstairs and slamming the door shut, aiming my AR at it, my visor polarizes but that didn't seem to hide the fact I was crying.

"Anson, get it together." Wolfe tells me, slapping my visor, I nod, choking out. I open the door, aiming down the stairs at an elite major having trouble with the stairs, I plaster him against the wall, things quiet down as the Covenant forces fall back temporarily. I close the door again, looking over at Wolfe and Taylor.

"That was close." He mutters to her.

"You guys are going to make me sick." I quietly complain.

Wolfe just shrugs, I sigh and I close my eyes again.

_

"Go fuck yourself Wolfe." I spit at him. "Go break protocol with Taylor, don't talk to me about her." I tell him, aiming down my sight.

Wolfe smacks me upside the head. "I need you at full psych, bro." Wolfe says, standing up and walking downstairs to get Taylor.

A single elite walks down the street, an energy sword in one hand and a plasma rifle in the other, it was huge. I got down into cover so that it didn't see me, I continue eating my shitty UNSC energy bar, once I finish I put my helmet back on, I go prone and crawl to the door, it slides open and I roll in, it closes behind me. I stand up and jog downstairs, the elite kicks down the door downstairs.

Wolfe and Taylor looked surprised to see a giant elite about to kill them, I hit it like a train, which I could've been considering my height weight and the fact I was wearing titanium armor. I press the barrel of my AR to its chin, compressing the trigger, making my ears ring even with my helmet blocking out some of the sound. I stop holding it down when the elite's face is mush, it falls over.

We run upstairs, the sun starts to set.

"Hawkins, first watch." Wolfe says, walking into a bed room with Taylor. I hold up my middle finger as they close the door.

I sit on the roof with a yawn, I turn on some music in my helmet, an appropriate song from about four hundred years ago. The song was called No Rest for the Wicked, I sit there and I listen to it as the landscape goes darker. Around an hour later I stand up and I walk into Wolfe's room, he had his arms wrapped around Taylor and was snoring, he had no helmet on so I walk over and I picked up his helmet, I tapped his head with it and then I step back, Wolfe jumps out of the bed and almost tackles me but instead he runs straight into a titanium wall.

"Your watch." I tell him, putting his helmet down and walking out, finding a cozy bed, which meant any bed considering I kept everything on and couldn't actually feel the material. I fall asleep within seconds.

I wake up to the sound of footsteps in front of me, I feel something pressed against my helmet, a plasma rifle. I growl at the minor as it prods me with the rifle.

"Fucker, I was sleeping." I mutter, the elite laughs, but is cut short by a .50 cal bullet splattering its brains through the wall.

"Taylor you fucking bitch you couldn't of done that sooner?!" I yell through my helmet. "Fuck off." Is her response, also some very colorful language from Wolfe. I grab my AR and my rucksack, I walk to the balcony and I wave at Taylor who was now across the road, firing round after round from her SKS. I set up my AR again, looking for targets. A squad of grunts meets its end before it could react to my M247L spitting out rounds.

I hear a screeching sound and I hit the deck, the house I am in erupts in a green fireball, which luckily doesn't affect the balcony in which I was currently holding myself as an armadillo would when a giant fucking animal tries to kill it.

"Banshee!" Taylor cries out.

"No fuckin' shit!" I yell out, depressing my AR's trigger as I aim at the Banshee.

Rounds ping off its purple hull for thirty seconds straight before the pilot is hit by the 7.62mm bullets, killing the alien inside and sending it tumbling down to enemy lines.

Suddenly my helmet erupts with noise. "The jammer is down!" Someone cries out. I breathe a sigh of relief as rapid calls for reinforcements went up from Wolfe, our situation desperate enough to warrant reinforcements was true, but most ODST's are too proud to request reinforcements which is why command sent us a slap across the face from heaven.

Four pods landed around our building, four giants stepped out of them, wielding enough weapons to supply a small militia, Spartan II's

They all carried the standard MA5B rifle with a magnum, one of them, wearing blue armor had two SMG's attached to it's belt, an orange one was carrying a fucking SPANKR on it's back like it was nothing and a machete at it's side. The one I assumed to be a sniper who was wearing black armor had a BR55 and an SKS strapped across it's back, and the last one who was the squad leader was wearing yellow armor and had two short shotguns strapped across its chest and a large one across it's back.

"Fuck." I hear Wolfe mutter, the Covvies were moving in fast, but Spartans were a fairy tale, a myth spread by the UNSC to strike fear into the Innies, apparently they were real because in a span on thirty seconds the enemy chain of command was dead and the enlisted were running from the bullets chasing them.

My helmet comm explodes with voices again, but one stood out to me. "Fucking hell! The beacon is down but so is Shrake, we need fucking- Oh shit." The comm cuts off again as a large purple ship appears over the city, from the looks, a CCS Battlecruiser, the bottom of it opens as it lands, unloading troops quickly and cleanly before closing it's bottom half and lifting again. The ship flies another mile across the city before it's bottom half opens again, a huge beam erupts as it cuts through the landscape. That's when two streaks of light knock it out of the sky, sending it plummeting on a crash course for the city.

When the ship explodes, the shockwave from the city in the distance breaks the windows of the houses here. Now that's badass. Other than the fact it probably killed a lot of people, of course.

"Shit, we need an aircraft, get us to a location with more strategic value and more fighting." Wolfe says over comm, I sigh, back into the suck again.

A Pelican lands, the back opens and a squad of Marines hop out, immediately running for cover as we step into the bird. The Spartan in charge greets their squad leader, who was still trying to register the fact a giant ass man in full MJOLNIR armor was standing over him.

The bird lifts off and immediately launches forward, zipping off to another place to attack of defend, same drill as always.

"Hawkins, status?" Wolfe asks quietly, staring at my dark helmet through his depolarized visor.

"Doing just fine, Gunny." I tell him, I grin when he scowls at the nickname he hated so much.

"Alright, both of you, no fuck ups this time." Wolfe says, the bird starting to slow and start its descent.

The back opens and all three of us jog out, guns raised and fingers on the triggers, looking for the slightest movement. In front of us stood a small complex with polycrete walls around it, MA37 rifles rest on the wall, the soldiers behind the rifles unseen to the naked eye.

We jog into the facility, where we are immediately greeted by the commander there, wearing old armor and carrying a MA37, an Army dog.

"Glad to see you made it." He says, eyeing us. "Troops needed a morale boost." He admits, my HUD marks him as Second Lieutenant Godfrey, he wears the standard Army uniform along with a whole lot of ammunition covering every pouch available, probably weighing over sixty kilos considering advances in modern technology.

Wolfe salutes, the Lieutenant's eyes to wide in fear as a blue beam cuts straight through him.

"The fuck, Wolfe?!" I yell at him, his helmet polarizes as he drops the salute, another beam flies by him as he turns to fire at the sniper

He fires several shots towards the point of where the beam originated from, cursing all the while.

"Fucking A." He mutters, probably still thinking about the Lieutenant he just killed.

I turn and jog to the wall, setting up my M247L on the side and depressing the trigger, spitting rounds into the tropical forest around us until my bullets are stopped by air.

"Spec ops!" Someone yells, all of the guns on the wall open up, looking for unseen targets, the soldier next to me is lifted up, a large spike sticking through his gut, causing his inner organs to spill out on to the spike impaling him.

The brute throws the soldier off of his bayonet and turns to me, the lust for blood clear in his eyes. I swing my gun towards him and manage to get off a couple of shots before he fucking kicks me off of the wall, making me land hard on the dirt.

"Fucking ape!" I yell, standing up and unhooking my knife from its place on my side. The brute accepts the challenge and lunges forward, I sidestep and slash his arm, it roars in pain and turns to me again.

"Motherfucker just doesn't want to die." I mutter, throwing the knife straight at him, the blade sinks into it's forehead and causes it to collapse, blood leaking from its wounds.

I pick my gun back up and I look over at the body in disgust. I look away and I gun down a curious Jackal who had wanted to try and sneak up on me.

"Hawkins, left flank." Wolfe tells me over the radio, I jog over to the designated location, a Hunter pair was going head to head with ten Army guys, one of the Hunter's bat's one of the heavy figures aside with its shield, sending the poor man into a back breaking hit into the polycrete wall behind him. Pure adrenaline forced me forward, spraying my AR straight at one of the Hunter's. My feet seemed to have a mind of their own as I sprinted towards one of them, unhook a frag grenade and sticking it straight into the orange chink in the Hunter's armor. I sprint past it as it charges it's gun to fire at me, the Hunter aims and explodes, sending armor and orange worms everywhere.

That's when an ear piercing cry came out of the other beast as it charges me, ramming straight into me with it's shield and sending me flying a good five feet back, making me roll in the dirt and scramble to get up.

The men around me then decide not to be so useless and open fire on the Hunter, the nine weapons firing at the Hunter dispatched of it quickly enough after a couple of reloads.

The Army men disperse and run back to defensive positions, opening up on the Covenant force's once again. The tell tale screams of the Banshee fliers fills the air as four of them, assembled into a wedge formation, start firing their fuel rod cannons at the base, sending soldier's and blood flying all around.

I climb on to the walls again, I fire about two shots before my AR clicks empty, I pull the box of ammunition out of the bottom and I feed my weapon more bullets, and a box to hold them together. I pull back the receiver before firing again, spitting hot fire towards the wall of grunt's and low ranking elite's. I see a small capsule fly towards the enemy line, it catches fire and hits their line, lighting up the enemy on the front line, the perfectly planned trap.

"Did anyone fucking see that?" A soldier yells, his hand up in the air.

"Get your fucking hand down!" I hear someone yell, but it was too late for that soldier, a pink barrage of needle's flies his way, four of them hitting down his arm.

I turn away as his arm explodes with micro shrapnel. I depress the trigger even more as the Covenant forces grow thicker, the sun starts to set as dark takes over the land of Rullins II.

"Hawkins, I need you to do me a huge favor." Wolfe says over the com, helmet flashlights bleed the dark as we look for the Covenant forces, they had stopped charging once the night set in.

"What do you need?" I ask him, keeping close watch.

"I need you to throw an IR strobe at the biggest cluster of enemies you can see." Wolfe tells me.

"Alright, one problem I can't see them." I tell him.

"Oh, I know, just get ready." He says, the sound of a projectile being launched from a launcher evident through the silent night.

The grounds in front of me lights up red, the Army personnel around me open fire at any Covenant alien they could see, I look around before throwing a small grenade shaped charge towards the enemy, the second it hits the ground, it absorbs itself into the ground. The sound of rocket's and machine gun's fill the air as two Falcon gunships open up on the area around the strobe, I watch in amazement as artillery and the gunship hellfire blows apart the enemy forces, all around the military base.

The red light starts to die as the Army boys cheer their asses off and the remainder of the Covenant retreats into the jungle.

_  
Authors note ( P. S I have no idea how to divide the page properly for the authors note )

Holy mother of Guadeloupe, it's been awhile since I uploaded but I hope this chapter was worth it, I didn't want to focus an entire fanfiction on one character so I have decided to make an ODST, and Marine which are already written about and an Army Ranger, Longsword/ Shortsword pilot, and a member of the Army Airborne, all in the Prefect battle group.

Anyway, follow this story and review if you want anymore characters, if you suggest a Spartan, do NOT expect many chapter's revolving around that character considering how early this story is in the Halo universe.  
I will be now uploading every Wednesday, sorry this was late, I have been writing more chapters after this one in case I get behind again so that way I can still upload.

Read on  
-Rsk


	8. Longsword on Shortstreet

Chapter VII: Longsword on Short street

Rullins II, Outer Colonies  
February 20th, 2531 UNSC Calender  
Chief Warrant Officer Amanda Kile  
160th SOAR Longsword detachment

I nervously pace the hangar bay deck, I look over at my Longsword, able to go faster than most UNSC single cockpit ships, and able to drop bombs at five times the speed of sound.

But yet here I was pacing around and worrying over the stupidest thing's. It was almost impossible to hear anything in the hangar most days, but today the hangar of the _Die Like Heretic's_ was almost completely empty, although it was only a small frigate compared to our flagship the Prefect, we still had over twenty Longsword's and even more Pelican and Shortsword aircraft. I had my flight suit and helmet on, I knew today was not going to be fun.

Today me and my co pilot, Warrant Officer first class Oryan were going to be engaging Seraphs in the vacuum of space to ensure safe civilian evacuation. Why was this FUBAR? Well because in space you can eject all you want but you'll just die slower, at least I can eject planet side.

"All pilots to their stations." The intercom blares, I jog over to my Longsword and I climb in, Oryan was already in his seat.

"Whatsup, gorgeous?" He asks me with a small grin from under his helmet.

"Your funny, but you'll have to try harder." I tell him, buckling in.

"C'mon give me some credit." He complains, checking the system's of our aircraft.

"I'll give you credit when you get fuckin' ace status." I tell him, placing my hands on the joystick of the craft.

"This is Stinger 2-1, requesting permission for takeoff." Oryan says into his radio.

"Stinger 2-1, you are green to go." Flight control tells us.

I lift us off, flying straight out of the hangar and into space. A waypoint set on my HUD and I adjusted my craft to get to the area I was supposed to be at.

"Stinger 1-1 signing in."

"Stinger 1-2 signing in."

"Stinger 2-1 signing in."

"Stinger 2-2, ready to kick some ass."

I roll my eyes at the last comment but it was almost tradition now.

"All Stinger elements, today we will be engaging enemy Seraph craft while the _Prefect_ battle group attempts to engage the enemy cruiser's around us." 1-1 says in comm, I nod my head even though I know that nobody but Oryan could see me.

"Stinger elements, form wedge and power up weapons." 1-1 orders, my autopilot adjusts me the slightest bit to make room for the other Longsword's.

The bombers form the wedge, other call signs do the same within their own squadrons. We approach one of the cruisers as two MAC rounds fly past our formations, catching one of the cruisers by surprise and literally cutting it in half, one less to deal with. The rest of the enemy fleet activates shields, Seraph flight craft fly out of the enemy hangars, flying towards our formation.

"Stinger, break off and engage." 1-1 says, every Longsword formation breaks as we begin to engage the enemy ship's.

I increase our speed, I feel myself pushed back into my seat, I flick open the weapon stick, I switch it around until 120mm bullets are loaded, I open fire, using my inertia to turn and tear through two Seraphs, my inertia dampeners reactivate and I slow down, I start locking on to targets, the Longsword system engages Seraph bombers automatically with missiles, until I tell it to stop, retaking the controls after a couple of missiles collided with nothing but shields.

"Mandy, we got a Seraph on our tail." Oryan informs me, I mentally roll my eyes at the nickname.

"Danke, Oreo." I tell him, turning off the dampeners again, I veer left on the joystick, my Longsword turns and continues flying backwards at the same speed and velocity it was before, the beauty of inertia.

"Bang bang, motherfuckers." I mutter, pressing down on the trigger, shells fly towards the Seraph that was behind me, I give partial control to Oryan, who fires two missiles in quick secession, both colliding with the hull of the space craft, tearing it apart.

I flip around again, my dampeners reactivating as I continue the dog fight.

"Ah shit! This is 1-2 I got five Seraphs on my ass, I'm not gonna- FUCK!" The signal to 1-2 cuts off, the lance of Scarabs flies away from the wreckage and flies behind me.

"Shit, Oreo, get on comm." I yell, veering to the right, this time my engines propelling me to the right instead of turning me around.

"This is 2-1, we need immediate assistance, same Scarabs." Oryan says in the radio.

A couple of rounds ping off of the Seraphs behind us, that's when our luck grew tremendously, a Frigate flew behind us, literally tanking the five Seraphs. Several more ships fly behind him, firing their MAC cannons at the same time, destroying another Corvette, a CCS Battlecruiser adjusts it's broadside and opens up on the lead Frigate, obliterating it before it could do anything.

"All Stinger elements, were escorting a Pelican to that CCS, form diamond around craft marked and prepare for defense." 1-1 says, marking the bird on our HUDs.

"Oreo, check weapons system and access ops and see what were dealing with." I order, turning us and propelling our ship towards the objective, a single Pelican flies towards the Battlecruiser, our Longsword's form around it.

We approach the enemy ship, it opens up on another set of Frigates while they fire their MAC rounds again, the large rounds smash into the ship's shields, barely denting it. We get the Pelican to the ship, but that's when things got crazy. The back of the ship opens and a squad of Rangers jumps out, behind them a behemoth of a man wearing a huge armored suit jumps out, holding a large cylinder in one hand and a M7 in the other.

"Stinger elements, break off." 1-1 orders, I turn our plane as the UNSC on the Battlecruiser engage Sangheili rangers. I do another pass of the Battlecruiser, the giant man places the cylinder down, more rounds slam into the Battlecruiser before it's shields die out, the men jump back into the Pelican and fly off back to where they came from, I speed away from the Battlecruiser before it explodes into a billion tiny pieces.

"All Stinger elements, were going to the surface, I repeat, adjust to the surface of Rullins, the boys down there need our help." 1-1 orders, I look at 1-1's ship, confused.

"Well, looks like we lost." Oryan says, pointing over at the retreating Prefect battle group, the group of ships goes behind the planet again as we dive through the atmosphere. The cabin starts to heat up, but is immediately cooled by the atmosphere control of the ship.

"Waypoint set." 1-1 says as a marker appears on our HUDs, the waypoint was at an airfield around Ghale.

I adjust my direction towards the airfield, landing my Longsword after slowing down.

"2-1, your both manning your own Falcons, your SpecOps, so deal with it, good luck." 1-1 says after landing.

Oryan gets a childish look on his face, obviously giddy to fly the gunships. I just shake my head as I climb into the cockpit of the gunship. The weapons system flashes to life on my HUD, I had access to one AGM rocket, several hundred Hellfire missiles and an almost infinite amount of 120mm shells. The sun starts to set as I get a waypoint on my HUD, I start up the propellers, the gunship lifts as I increase the speed, once the ship lifts the engines form to those of a plane, allowing me to go faster. Oryan and I fly towards the waypoint, the darkness spreading over our side of the planet. Occasionally plasma flies up and around my ship, causing the cockpit to shake.

Our Falcons get within forty miles of the objective before a transmission appears on my HUD.

"This is Chief Kile, identify yourself." I say through the radio.

"This is Gunnery Sergeant Nicholas Wolfe, reporting in, I heard you were dispatched to us?" I heard, the radio was not as clear as usual, gunfire and plasma fire clashed over the radio.

"Yes, what's your situation, Sergeant?" I ask, paying attention now.

"We are in need of support, we are currently, oh fuck, Hawkins get on that!" Wolfe yells over the radio, more gunfire. "Sorry, we are currently surrounded, we'll be using several IR strobes to mark enemy positions, things are starting to quiet down, but I don't trust it." He says, cutting the comm.

"You hear that, Oreo?" I ask him, his acknowledgment light winks in response. I stop the gunship, hovering for a second, plasma and tracer rounds light up the grounds in front of me, it was obvious that the Covenant outnumbered us heavily here.

The grounds suddenly go dark, the Covenant had been covering fire to cover their retreat into the forests, it stayed like that for another ten minutes before my HUD detected movement, helmet lights at the base turn on and things calm down, but the Covenant had dug themselves into the fields around the base.

"Strobes out." I hear over the radio.

The grounds around the base light up red from a flare shot straight up over the base, I see blinking red lights from my HUD, most of them land among large clusters of Covenant readying for battle the next morning. Tracer rounds fly from the base again, tearing through the Covenant before I get the chance to fire.

I aim for large clusters, holding down the hellfire missile button, the missiles send body parts and multi colored blood everywhere, two Hunter pairs aim at my ship, readying their weapons, Oryan fires his AGM, the explosion kills all of the Hunters and most of the aliens around them within a ten meter radius.

I use my AGM on a cluster of Jackals who had gotten the brilliant plan to form the classic tortoise formation with their energy shields to cover high ranking elites, the entire alien line and their leadership goes out with a bang.

Plasma flies around our gunships, I adjust my position and I fire my cannon at them, UNSC artillery falls around the base, sinking itself into the ground before lifting the ground up with a large explosion, taking out a ton of aliens.

The low ranking Grunts lead the retreat, tripping over each other to get back to where they had come from, we our gunships follow, killing half of the force before they could get into heavy foliage.

"2-1, report back to base for next assignment." I hear over the long range radio in my gunship.

I turn my ship around, turning it back to a plane and flying off back towards the airfield, when we land we immediately are rushed into our Longsword.

"Flight check." I tell Oryan.

"All systems green, Chief." He tells me, after typing a couple of commands into the ops console.

We take off again, as do all the other Stinger elements, a waypoint appears on my HUD.

"Were doing a bombing run near Ghale, the Marines there need some cover for a Med evac." 1-1 says over the radio, everybody but 1-2 winks their acknowledgment lights, I sigh when I remember how they died.

We reach Ghale quickly, the waypoint not far, suddenly the way point appears into several red targets for bombs, we zoom over and start to loop around, breaking our formation.

I link up my HUD to one of the Marines, Private First Class Velstadt Khan, his first person perspective was a Marine he was dragging, the Marine's face was charred beyond recognition and some of it was starting to fall off. He drags the Marine to another two, one of them laying on the ground with only one arm. A phantom streaks over them, I grin, the whole reason I had been looking through the soldier's helmet was to find a target to hit.

I dive down, seeing the phantom, I drop one of the bombs inside of my Longsword before pulling up, watching the Phantom explode behind me, just before landing. Wraiths show up and disappear on my radar as 1-1 and 2-2 intercept the tanks and blow them to hell.

"Get Shrake and Ramirez into that fuckin' bird!" One of the Marines yells, the Pelican lands and it's back opens, the Marines carry the men into it and place them on the blood tray, the bird takes off and we follow after killing off a couple squads of elite's.

"Right, the Pelican is safe, one more and then were bailing for the night." 1-1 says, the three Longsword's turn to the final checkpoint, a Army Ranger squad pinned down on a fifteen story building, the ops file revealed our main task of knocking out any major threat to the building, which made me semi-confused considering we were also a large threat to that building.

The city glowed with fire as we flew over it, watching out for the building 1-1 had told us about. Plasma flak went around 2-2's fighter as we flew over an enemy encampment, 2-2 dropped one of his 300 kg bomb's, obliterating the place.

We flew over the building, and I started to understand why they needed our help, a Seraph fighter flew over us, several Phantoms hover over the roof, but were blown up by 1-1's auto cannon. One of the few Scarabs took up a position behind me, I went straight up and looped around to the bastard's tail, sending two missiles into it for a two tap kill, sending the alien craft crashing into a building across the street from the Ranger's.

I link my helmet up to one of theirs, a Specialist who was using most of his MA37 ammo by pouring rounds down the stairs. Spec ops elites tried climbing the stairs with little luck, getting gunned down by the Ranger's.

"Pelican is here! Blow up the stairs and move out!" Someone yells, I watch as the Specialist places down a block of C12 against one of the supports for that side of the building before running out to the helipad where the debris of the two Phantoms still glowed brightly.

A single Pelican landed, and about a squad of Ranger's loaded in at a time, only two squads remained of the five after the Pelican lifted off, with promises of another bird.

I do another fly by, following the Pelican, and warding off a lance of Banshee's getting ready for advance. I look back and I watch the building the Ranger's were in collapse, halfway where the C12 was, now only a half of the building remained. Another Pelican soars past me.

"Stinger elements, return to the _Die Like Heretics_." 1-1 says, I wink my light, but there is no response from 2-2.

"1-1, this is 2-1, where the fuck is 2-2?" I ask, I hear a sigh over the radio.

"Just shut up and go, Kile." He says, I pull me craft up and we start to go back into space where a devastating battle is still obvious, around four Covenant ships were destroyed, and around ten of the Frozen Luck battleground were gone.

"So, about that dinner." Oryan starts.

"Whatever, I'll go." I tell him, a slight smile from behind my visor.

"Really?" He asks.

"Yeah, as a friend." I tell him, I can visually see his ego dying before laugh again before we dock back into our ship, two Stinger Longsword spots empty.

_  
Authors note.

Sorry for the short chapter, I wanted to do a cliffhanger tease kind of thing for the next couple of chapters and a follow up on the last one, by blowing up everything and making it seem like the UNSC was going to win. Now, when I fully get off of Rullins, each serviceman I introduce will be in a different battle, on a different planet, which of course can change if people Review and tell me I'm stupid for even thinking of putting that many chapters into a single planetary battles, cuz guess what? We got a couple more soldier's to introduce one of which was in this chapter, so next chapter will be the UNSC Army Rangers.

Leave a Review if you enjoyed.

Read on  
-Rsk


	9. Lead the Way

Chapter VIII: Lead the Way

Rullins II, Outer Colonies  
February 19th, 2531 UNSC Calender  
Specialist Andrew Wood  
Army Airborne Ranger's, 1-503rd battalion, Legion company, second platoon first squad

The inside of a pelican is cold and depressing, considering it was always the thing that picked us up from terrible battles and dropped us into terrible battles. But the pelican could not compare to the desolation of Ghale, the city was being burnt to a husk, the atmosphere of the tropical planet had been fucked from the glassing, when it rained, it rained ash, which was what was happening right now, as we sat in the cover of defilade, our MA37's at the ready. We had just done a HALO jump out of a Pelican flying at speeds most men wouldn't have dreamed of when they created our beautiful corps.

Our battle group, _Frozen Luck_ had designated a high value enemy target perfect for light infantry assaults. The enemy was not designated by the standard of minor and major Elite but this one had a fancier headdress and was two feet taller than most elite's. So in other words it was so tall HIGHCOM wanted to kill it and not bother to designate it.

I groan slightly, looking at all the soldiers around me, I was probably one of the only ones here who bothered to grab a college education on my way off world. We start to move, considering it was night time and we were behind enemy lines, we moved low and fast, covering each other to get from cover to cover.

"Tige, move up with your fire team." I hear Ferensic order, our squad leader crouches near the front of our squad.

"Wood, your up." Tige says from next to me, I look around for contact before sprinting into the Covenant held facility. I take cover by a wall, motioning for the rest of the squad to move up.

They move up and we officially enter Ghale.

Every rifle that a Ranger owned would come with an extension to the barrel, elongating it and therefore making the shots quieter, every man in our squad had theirs attached. We enter after Bravo fire team meets up with us. My HUD flashes as midnight approaches.

"Breaching, 3...2... Go." Tige says, we enter and open up on two Elites and a couple of Grunts on a boring patrol, multi colored blood splatters against the ground behind them as they collapse.

"Breach and clear it quickly, we still have to get to the objective." Ferensic says, we walk along the wall of the inside, walking in, several Marines lay on the ground, gaping holes in their chests from god knows what.

When we enter the main room, we look around.

"Clear left!"

"Clear right!"

"Move out."

We jog out of the facility back on to the road where human bodies litter the ground, most with plasma or energy sword wounds that ended their lives.

"Target ahead." I hear through comm, I look to my right, all Airborne squads were moving parallel to each other so that we could clear the streets before entering the giant building.

We fan out into the lobby of our target building, each squad was to clear the four fifteen stories on that street, that way we could find the giant ass Elite and deal with him effectively.

No aliens appear to us as we walk in, we check each corner of the room before calling out that it's clear.

"Right, our UAV is showing heat sigs on the fourteenth and fifteenth floor, Bravo fire team will go fourteenth, Alpha will go topside, understood?" Ferensic asks, the fire team leaders respond with Hooah's.

"Alpha, on me." Tige orders, we jog into an open elevator, he presses the button and we start to go up. The elevator shakes, I look up and I see a blue glow through the top vent of the elevator.

"Shit." I say, the elevator shakes again as we jog out, the last two people are about to jog out when suddenly the elevator drops, all fifteen stories, two elites remain, both wearing Spec Ops armor, this disappear and jump away.

"Fuck! Blake, Clian! Respond!" Tige yells through squad net, I watch as the two names on our roster go red.

"Tige, the fuck just happened?" Ferensic asks, perfectly calm.

"This is the fuckin' building, it's crawling with Spec ops, they just dropped two of my guys by cuttin' the elevator cables." Tige says, he was panicking.

"Right, the other four Airborne squads are on their way to assist us, considering their buildings are clear, just wait two while they get up the steps."

"Two mikes for fifteen stories? Right." Tige says before cutting the net.

The remainder of our team looks around, our heads on a swivel at all times. I see a shimmer and I open fire, sending the entire thirty two bullet magazine into the unshielded elite who thought he'd get the best of me, he collapses as his blood splatters on to the large window behind him.

"Fuck, were screwed, we got Spec ops in a building with outside walls that are entirely windows." I hear Jane say, her voice emphasized because of fire team net.

"Stop complaining, rest of the Legion is almost here." Tige says, referring to our platoon's call sign.

Footsteps from behind send me looking that direction, I watch the squads fan out around the large floor, each area of the fifteenth floor was cut off by cubicles or some other room, the stereotypical office building, plenty of places for someone to hide, especially if they had access to the giant landing pad on the roof. Modern technology in a nutshell.

Tige starts to move, so we follow, walking along the windows that were the only thing between us and the outside.

"Alpha, report in." Tige says.

"Jane here."

"Utah reportin'."

"Wood here."

"Petro repor-"

The soldier never got to finish his last words. I hear glass breaking from behind and the a scream, I turn and I watch almost on slow motion the elite put his foot back down, Petro falls, his screams fade as he falls lower, his name goes red and his vitals flatline.

I raise my gun and I depress the trigger, the elite charges and runs into me, it takes all of my strength to push him out of the open window, a death fit for a sick bastard. Before I knew it, I was falling out of the window too, but I just hang there, my helmet hits against the glass wall in front of me, I feel a breeze, I look up and I realize I'm hanging upside down, the ground below me had Petro and the Elite dead, sitting there unmoving. I feel a pull and before I know it, I'm back inside, staring straight into Jane's polarized helmet.

"Thanks." I tell her, she just nods and our team keeps on walking forward.

"Fuck it, Alpha, heat sensors are on from here on out, I don't care if you can't see or shoot well, I want a warning before another one of you, or me gets hit." Tige says, we all nod in agreement, the world around me turns into black and white heat signatures.

"Fuck! This is Specialist Perry taking over for- kill that fucker!" Gunfire erupts through the radio, another scream pierces through, causing me to wince.

"Shit.. No! Please! AHHH-" I close my eyes and I mute comms, I look at Tige, who's visor depolarized.

"We've tracked their last position, let's move." Tige says, we jog up the hall, disoriented but safe, no resistance until we reached the cafeteria that squad had been in. Every single wall in the room was covered in blood, bodies hang from the ceilings or are plastered to walls, limbs torn off or gaping holes in their chests.

"The fuck?!" Tige yells, I walk forward, my heat sensor turns off as I step on a corpse, I look down, the man's chest cavity had been ripped open, all of his organs ripped out, his helmet tags him as Specialist Perry.

I take my helmet off and I turn away before throwing up on to the floor, the remainder of my fire team looks around at the bodies before Tige reports in to Ferensic.

"Whole bunch of apes went nuts in here, Sarge, what is command not telling us?" Tige asks.

"Right, I am broadcasting this over platoon net because I believe it is not right to hold this information any longer." Ferensic says, our Lieutenant starts to speak up but he is quickly interrupted by the platoon Sergeant.

"Go ahead Ferensic." The Sergeant says.

"Earlier today a Brute chieftain of high leadership was killed by a small squad of Marines, the Elite we are hunting was with the bastard, he fucked up one of our Marines and ran off to here, with a vanguard of elites and brutes to protect him, I guess the apes are still pissed. Mission priority remains the same, take out that son of a bitch." Ferensic says, the platoon net gets cut by the Lieutenant before anybody can respond.

We walk through the cafeteria before we find the apes, walking on all fours and snarling at us. Our fire team opens fire, one of the apes jumps on Jane, I jam my foot between them and I kick upwards, depressing the trigger of my gun, sending bullet after bullet into the Brute's nose. It collapses, and I help Jane up.

"I guess were even, huh?" I ask.

Jane opens up, killing a Brute that got to close to me. "Not anymore." She replies, I grin from behind my polarized visor, we keep shooting. Eventually the brutes stop coming, I breathe heavily, I reload quickly and I discard the empty magazine, no point in wasting pocket space to store them. We take the pace down, walking slowly with our weapons raised, I watch my ammo counter, every once in awhile the number will flicker and change, a sure sign that it was battered and needed to be fixed. We round a corner, all four of us in a horizontal line across the hallway, an unsound strategy from taking contact from both sides, but we hadn't confirmed the enemy being behind us. My HUD's motion tracker seems to flare red as at least twenty signatures show up as being just ahead of us. We all stop, I crouch as the signatures get closer.

The door in front of us is kicked open, a man aims a M6 towards us, he wears a tattered business suit, blood pours out of his right arm where a bite mark protrudes.

"Stand down." He says, still aiming at us.

I look over at Tige, confused. "Drop your weapon, we're here to help." Tige says, carefully.

The man shakes his head, I see a small face peek out from behind him.

"Listen, I've got women and children here, I know how you Innie's operate." He says to us, the M6 starts to shake in his hands.

"Ehm, we aren't Innie's, friend." Tige says, all of our visors depolarize, showing confused or hardened faces.

"Then who the hell are you?" The man demands, two more gun barrels stick out, leveling with our heads.

"Listen, my name is Corporal Tige of the UNSC Airborne special operations I think-." He is cut off when the man fires, the round flies straight through Tige's visor, making his head jerk back as blood stains the inside of his helmet.

"Shit!" Jane yells, we all open fire, bullets tear through the man and the people behind him, blood splatters on to the floor as he collapses.

"Fuck you!" I yell, letting go of a frag grenade, it rolls into the room and detonates, blood splatters the wall inside.

Utah had crouched down next to Tige, pulling off his helmet and examining the wound, he shakes his head and grab's the Corporal's dog tags. I look down at my boots as his name turns red.

"This is Specialist Utah, taking over Alpha fire team in place of Corporal Tige." Utah says over comm, the only private here was Jane, and she was a Private First Class.

"Alpha, were moving." Utah says, we start walking forward again, just the three of us.

We stand next to a door marked by squad net and kick it down, breaching into the room, where the biggest elite I had ever seen and a squad of Jackals waited for us.

We immediately get into cover as one of the Jackals opens up, Utah hides behind a pillar while Jane and I flip over a table, which was decently reliable. The room stretched five meters deep and three meters wide, allowing for the perfect ambush and fire fight place. I pop up and I fire a burst towards a Jackal, ending it's journey.

Utah moves up, when he's about to get into cover I watch as a Jackal charges him, Jane takes it out, but two more jump on to Utah, Jane reloads, fumbling for a new magazine while I fire off another burst, killing one of the birds. I fire again, but when I pull the trigger my rifle clicks empty.

The Jackal pulls an energy dagger and stabs it into Utah, slicing open his armor but not touching his skin. Utah's armor falls to the floor as I reload, the Jackal sticks it's beak into Utah's chest, I close my eyes as Utah cries out in pain as the Jackal starts to eat him.

"Fuck you!" Utah spits, I open my eyes, Utah holds a grenade, it explodes.

The Jackal dies with him, the grenade sends shrapnel flying around the room, one of which slams hits Jane on her shoulder.

She cries out in pain as I pull back the bolt of my MA37, I open up on the rest of the Jackals before noticing the elite was gone. I get out of cover.

"C'mon you coward!" I yell, I hear a footstep to my left, I turn and I see the Elite, holding two energy swords. It lunges towards me, adrenaline flows into my blood stream and everything seems to go into slow motion again. I step to the side, I feel the sword cut into the side of my armor as the Elite passes me, time resumes as I spin around, unloading my clip into the Elite's back.

It roars as it turns again, it's shields still at full capacity. It charges again, this time knocking my gun out of my hands as it passes. I hear a magnum fire, and I knew it was Jane, I grab my combat knife, standard issue, and I spin it, facing the Elite.

The beast throws away one of it's swords and lunges again, I side step and I slash down on it's arm, causing it's shields to flicker. It charges again, but when I side step it stabs towards me, the twin tips of the energy sword sinking into my shoulder, the Elite passes and tears my shoulder out.

I scream in pain, adrenaline flies through my veins, giving me the last strength to lunge at the cheeky bastard and jam my knife into it's mouth, straight into the back of it's throat. It chokes out and fall over, I fall on top of it, I feel myself being dragged but I refuse to move my head to see who, when we pass my MA37, I grab it and I continue to lay limp as I am dragged.

I feel bio foam enter my shoulder and I cry out in pain, I hear a quiet curse, arms wrap around me as more enters my shoulder, I stay quiet still trying to figure out what was happening. I feel myself being dragged, the right side of my vision where the glass wall is, lights up blue as plasma hits it, the person dragging me goes faster, setting me down and opening fire towards the windowed wall.

"Andrew! Get the fuck up!" I hear Jane scream, I give myself a reality check as I stand, I hold my gun with one hand, still waiting for my shoulder to stop hurting so bad. We rush into a cubicle where a fire team of Ranger's was guarding the stairs. We join them, I open up on several Spec Op elite's trying to climb the stairs with little luck, they go down easily.

"Pelican is here! Blow up these stairs and move out!" The soldier next to me yells, I grab my block of C12, Jane covers me as I spread it on one of the supports.

We run up to the last flight of stairs, running on to the roof where a Pelican was already taking off.

"Fuck!" I yell, the bird takes off, I find Ferensic, Jane and I set up, aiming down the stairs where he was.

"Don't worry, there's another bird coming." Ferensic says, I look up as a Longsword soars overhead, following a flight of Banshee's following the Pelican that had just taken off.

More Covenant start to come up the stairs to the roof, the remaining Rangers open fire on them, tearing them apart. Phantom drops ships start to fly in, one flies near us and gets shot out of the sky by a SPANKR rocket, causing one of the Grunts manning a plasma cannon to trip and fall out, cracking it's head on the side of the building before falling to the ground below.

Another Pelican flies in, we start to back up, the hatch opens, a crewman stands on it, a MA5 in his hand.

"C'mon!" He yells, firing off a couple of rounds at a Grunt, we start to run in, a plasma grenade falls on to the hatch as Jane and I run in, I tackle her to the floor as it goes off, blackening the hatch, but not harming me of Jane. We set down, I rub my shoulder.

"Well, Wood? What are you waiting for?" Ferensic asks, motioning to the detonator on my belt.

The back hatch reopens. "Alright, 3...2...1." I say, counting on my fingers, I squeeze the detonator, the half of the building explodes, leaving only one half remaining. "Just wait." I tell them, the rest of the building falls, taking out a building across the street.

"Fuck yeah!" Ferensic says, the Ranger's around me grin as we fly up into the atmosphere.

We break the atmosphere, the hatch had already closed before we went out with no oxygen. I open up on the pilot's perspective on my helmet, the area around us was filled with debris, a large chunk of plating flies by us, it reads: Frozen Luck.

"Oh shit..." Jane mutters as we fly towards the UNSC _Prefect_.

_  
Author's note

This is the second to last chapter of Rullins ( I promise ). Next chapter will be back to the perspective of Private Ryan Shrake, and then we majestically fly off to some other system. I am very happy to see good feedback on this story because I didn't know if it would work out or not, which it has, so I thank you. Anybody catch the Star Ship Troopers reference? If so, good job. Here's the three R's.

Review, follow and favorite for more!  
Read on  
-Rsk


	10. The Hell of it All

Chapter VIIII: The Hell of it All

Rullins II, Outer Colonies  
February 20th, 2531, UNSC Calender  
Private Ryan Shrake  
UNSC Marine Corps

The sound of Ramirez screaming wakes me, I blink my right eye, I can't see out of my left, but I can still feel it there, a good sign considering what had happened.

"Fucking hell! The beacon is down but so is Shrake we need fucking- Oh shit." I hear Khan start, a CCS Battlecruiser warps over us.

I feel myself being dragged again, I close my eye, I reopen it to see a blood trail from my back as I am dragged, the polycrete tearing at the open hole in the back of my armor. I look over at Figel and Ramirez, Figel slaps him across the face, but I see it in slow motion, everything turning black and white.

HUD glasses are put on my face as I am dragged, and a magnum is dropped into my lap, I pick it up and I fire over and over, weakly controlling the recoil of the weapon as Grunt's start to charge us.

"Shrake! Get the fuck up now!" Khan yells, it brings me back to reality, I aim a shot and I pull the trigger, the magnum clicks empty. With my other arm I fumble for a pistol magazine, which I find and I quickly slam into my gun, firing into the Grunt minors that got too close for comfort. I exhale loudly as my weapon clicks empty again, the last Grunt I had shot was literally two feet off of hitting me, the head of the little monster still spurting blood. I cry out when I reload, my side exploding in pain. I look down and I see a glowing needle stuck into it, I drop my pistol and I yank it out, causing me to cry out again as I throw it at the nearest Grunt, the needle explodes into its face, temporarily blinding it.

"Catch motherfucker!" I hear Khan yell, throwing a frag grenade at a Grunt, the alien catches it and has a smug look on its face before exploding, causing Khan and I to burst out in laughter, despite the situation. My pistol clicks as I load another bullet into the chamber, I fire again, still firing one handed, Khan grabs the back of my armor again and starts to drag me again.

"Heard you boys needed support." I hear over my radio. Khan sets me down and starts to spray into the crowd in front of us, I fire the magnum the best I can, I hear the sound of aircraft in the air as three super sonic bombers fly over, the Covenant lines in front of us explode in a rain of fire and machine guns that were fired quickly enough to account for the fact those bombers were so damned fast. The rest of the Covenant are quickly and easily disposed of, some of the Grunts getting away in the process.

Another aircraft flies over us, a Pelican marked with a Red Cross on the side, I drop the magnum as I slip into unconsciousness.

I open my eyes and I see the titanium ceiling of the UNSC Prefect, the beeping of a heart rate monitor makes me double check my surroundings, Khan sleeps in a chair next to the bed I'm in and Ramirez is in the bed across the room, Figel next to him, he screams, doctors holding him down as they try to get something on to his leg.

"Fuck." I mutter, I could still only see out of the right side of my face, the other half still covered with bandages.

Khan looks up at me and a grin spreads across his face. "You're a tough motherfucker, taking one across the face like that." He says, patting my shoulder.

"Please, it was just a beacon, you dragged me the fuck out, since when were you Medal of Honor material like that?" I ask, he laughs and shakes his head, looking over at Ramirez, his smile drops as he watched the doctors operate on him.

I start to get up, ripping the IV attached to my arm off, swinging my legs around to the side of the bed and standing, my legs explode in pain for a second before going back to normal, I shake my feet for a moment before walking out of the Med Bay, the medics too busy on Ramirez to notice me.

The first thing I do when I walk out is go to one of the holo boards in the hallway of the ship, I scan the casualty list for a second before sighing in relief, no Jennifer Orwich on the list. I walk up the hall before opening a barracks door, Jenn sits inside, her datapad in her lap.

"You're late." She says, I laugh and I walk over, sitting next to her. "I didn't think it was funny, I've been double checking that casualty list." She says.

"Takes more than a horde of Grunts to kill me, Jenn." I say with a laugh. "Plus I couldn't exactly help getting the left side of my face burned off."

She looks up from her datapad, examining the bandages strewn across my face. "You're alive, that's what matters." She tells me, I nod and I watch her out away her datapad.

"Glad you're alive, too Jenn." I say, meeting her gaze, she laughs and kisses me on the cheek, causing me to blink. "That's your reward for staying alive, Rye." She says, her face colored a deep red.

"Danke." I say with a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of my head. She just shakes her head. "I'm gonna grab something to eat." She says, starting to stand.

"Should I go with you or go somewhere else?" I ask her, she looks down at me and raises an eyebrow. "Whatever you want." She says, I stand and we walk out towards the Galley.

When we sit down, I notice how practically empty the place is, many spots in the Galley were empty even with Navy personnel eating here, symbolizing how many Marines we had lost during the defense of Rullins. I look over at the ODST's, the table for their platoon was kissing eleven spots, the ODST's had their own table, so they didn't have to deal with us jarheads as they put it.

I grab a tray and I sit down, several announcements blade over the intercom as we prepare to go into slipspace, Jenn sits next to me and we talk quietly for a couple of minutes, mostly about our experiences planetside.

Someone sits down next to me, I look at him for a second before grinning. "Whatsup, Corporal?" I ask Jast, he looks at me and laughs. "Sergeant, now." He says.

"Jesus Christ, I haven't even gotten First class yet." I say with a laugh, he chuckles and starts to eat, I resume talking with Jenn, but every once in awhile Jast and I start a conversation about something.

"So, I was watching these hinge heads try to climb some stairs, they looked fuckin' ridiculous." Jast says, I laugh and then the intercom calls out again.

"Privates Shrake, Khan, and Figel, report to the Mission prep room." The intercom beeps again and I stand, saying goodbye to Jast and Jenn.

"I'll see you later, Rye." Jenn says with a laugh, standing and walking out, Jast raises an eyebrow at me but I just wave him off, jogging to Mission prep.

When I arrived, I realize that Khan and Figel had best me there, I walk in and I salute the First Lieutenant in the room, he nods to me and I drop the salute, falling into line with the two other Marines.

"I would first like to offer an apology for leaving you at that evacuation site, Marines, this company should not have left that area, but luckily, five thousand out of the sixteen made it off planet at that site, which is pretty damn good for four Marines." Lieutenant says to us, we nod and he continues. "I would first like to congratulate Private Figel for your promotion to First class, but that will be the only promotion today. My biggest new is the promotion of Corporal Jast to Sergeant, due to the loss of many squad leader during our operations on Rullins." He says, I raise my eyebrow.

"Sir, sorry to interrupt, but what does this have to do with us...?" I ask, he looks at me and smiles, even though it was more than likely a gesture of kindness it made me shiver throughout my spine.

"Well, Private, Jast will be starting a new squad along with Sergeant Hughes, Grizzly and Gorilla squads, whic will help form the new Joker company, which means more positions have opened up, specifically for men of your expertise and physical state." He says, we all nod again, he starts to pace back and forth between us. "Private Khan, Sergeant Jast has requested that you become one of his fire team leaders, do you accept the transfer?" He ask Khan, I can see him visibly gulp.

"Aye, sir." Khan says, the Lieutenant nods.

"Congratulations, Lance Corporal." He tell him, shaking his hand, Khan grins as the Lieutenant walks in front of me.

"Private Shrake, I got a medical report explaining to me that you aim with your left eye, which will never be able to see the same way with how bad it was burnt." He tells me, my eyes flick down to my boots.

"However, your knack for survival is noticeable, which is why I am offering you the rank of Private First Class and the position of RTO in Jester company." He says, offering his hand to shake.

I shake his hand. "Sir, I know nothing about radio chat." I say to him, looking at his hand.

"Son, that's why we'll teach you." He says, his hand still in the same position.

"Aye, sir." I say, shaking his hand with a firm grip. He hands me my chevrons and a date, time and location to learn about radio comm.

"Last but not least, Private Figel." He says, stepping in front of him. "Private Shrake will need a guard while in combat, and I'm thinking you're the man for the job." He says to him, offering his hand, Figel shakes it and the Lieutenant nods. "Report to the same location as Private Shrake on the same day." He tells him, stepping back from our three man line. "Privates Figel and Shrake, you will also be attached to Gorilla squad." He says to us, eyeing us carefully. "Marines, dismissed." He says to us.

"Hoorah, sir!" We all say in synchronization, he waves us off and we walk out.

I had never seen Figel out of armor, but now I examine him, he has a straight face, and a lean body, trimmed eyebrows and a clean shaven face, blue eyes and the standard military buzz cut, along with brown hair, standing next to Khan, he is about two inches shorter than the darker man, his family originally from India before moving out to the stars, he has a trimmed beard and her black hair, having the same build as Figel.

We walk down the hallway, mostly talking quietly about our new positions, the RTO training was in about two hours in the hangar, for whatever reason, which means I had a few to waste.

I split off from the crew and I jog up to Jenn's barrack, sitting down next to her on the bed. "I got promoted." I tell her, she nods and laughs. "About time." She says, Jenn has a French accent and blonde hair, hazel eyes and a soft face, she didn't have a muscular tone to her, but she is strong having joined the Marines.

"Whatsup?" She asks, looking at me. I just shrug and I look over in the corner.

"Rye, I got something to show you." She tells me, standing up and motioning for me to do the same, when I stand she examines me for a second.

"What is it?" I ask, my hand rubbing the back of my head, the short haircut fuzzy beneath my fingers.

"Hold still." She says, her body was an inch away from mine, she was about three inches shorter than I am, she stands up on her tippy toes and softly kisses me on the lips, surprised I kiss her back before she breaks the kiss and looks up at me with eyebrows raised.

I blink and I look at her. "What propelled you to do that?" I asked her, she giggles. "I dunno." She says, her face starting to return to a neutral state.

"Well, I enjoyed it." I say to her, her face lightens up again as she grins.

_

My eyes open when I hear my helmet beep quietly in the corner, Jenn breathes softly next to me, my arms wrapped around her. I move out of the bunk quietly, putting my armor on over my fatigues that I hadn't taken off, and I walk out of the barracks door, jogging to the hangar. When I got there I was greeted by Figel and a Lance Corporal with a large bandage from the left shoulder of his UNSC shirt down to his wrist, wrapping around to the back as if to keep his arm supported.

"Private Shrake, glad you could make it." He says to me, I nod and he picks up a backpack off the ground, thrusting it forward into my chest, I grab it and examine it.

"This is your LRR, or Long Range Radio, one of the requirements for being an RTO is that you know how to effectively use this beautiful piece of equipment." He says to me.

"My name is Lance Corporal Frohike, and I will be reaching you the basics." He says to me and Figel, he goes through the radio commands and everything I would need to know, including gear load outs and who I was supposed to stick with at all times.

When we were done, he said something into his helmet radio and walked out, Figel and I, having become acquainted with one another walked to the simulation room that the Prefect possessed.

We walked in and I turned on the holo grams, the AI in the simulation programming a situation for me automatically, I grab an MA5B assault rifle while I wait, and I load it, my helmet straps secured to the bottom of my chin.

The simulation takes over my HUD, giving me view of an Elite with an energy sword, a Jackal with a beam rifle and a little girl who looked to be around thirteen. The sniper takes aim at me while the Elite trudges towards the girl.

The first time I tried it, I sprayed at the Elite and killed the girl, restarting the simulation, I took better care of aiming and I killed the Elite but the Jackal shot me. I watch Figel leave the room out of the corner of my eye, focusing back in on the simulation. This time I fire at the Jackal while running forward, I tackle the girl that felt real but wasn't because of the simulation as the Elite was about to slash down on her, another beam flies over my head and I take the shot, killing the Jackal, as I turn towards the Elite is stabs me straight through my back. I stand to run the simulation again but this time it shuts down, my HUD shows me the normal world in front of me instead of just my peripherals, I see a young woman dressed in a white suit, various badges pinned to her chest.

I immediately snap to attention, my right hand touching the end of my eyebrow of the same side.

"At ease." She tells me, I drop the salute and I start to apologize but she just waves me off. "I was watching your simulation, and I had some questions." She answers, I nod. "Why didn't you let the girl die?" She asks me, her left eyebrow raised, she has light brown hair and black eyes, a set face with a small scar on her lower lip, she looked about twenty eight but that's not counting cryo years. A badge sits on her right shoulder, the mark of a Vice Admiral.

"Ma'am, a civilian's life is more valuable than mine." I tell her, she nods before speaking again. "I think you were taught the opposite, Marine." She says to me.

"Ma'am, I do not believe I am of upmost importance to be in presence of a Vice Admiral for just notes on a simulation, was there another reason you came down?" I ask her, she smiles and looks at me.

"You just have a very interesting file." She tells me, I just shrug, my functioning eye flicks down to my boots, spread out in the parade rest stance.

"But the main reason I am here is to give a letter from your friends in ONI." She says, handing me a holo tape, something I can easily just plug into my datapad. "That is all, good bye." She says, walking out of the room.

I put my MA5B into one of the crates along with the rest of my ammo and I walk to my barrack, luckily nobody is in there when I walk up the hall and into the small room for enlisted personnel such as myself. I plug the holo tape into my datapad and I read the file.

"Good afternoon, Ryan, that's what it is here on Reach, at least. I would like a debrief of your first operation at the ONI tower. - Your handler, Dean."

I groan as I read it, the man who had gotten me into the Marine Corps in the first place now wanted me to talk to him face to face on a professional topic. I pull the tape out and I put the datapad under my bunk, I walk for about ten minutes before reaching the cryo bay, where I freeze myself for our journey to Reach.

_

The cryo pod opens when I awaken, I climb out and I grab my fatigues and Marine Corps T-shirt and I get dressed, not looking at any of the others around me, the guys make fun of some of the girls as usual before I walk out, I head down the hallway to the hangar where Pelican's are getting ready to disembark, I made sure my knife was still in it's place on my side and my Magnum there too, you could never be too paranoid, my dog tags jingle as I jog towards the nearest Pelican. I sit down close to the pilot as the Pelican lifts off, almost a full load of people.

I feel my stomach lurch as we leave the gravity of the Prefect, then re enter Reach's atmosphere, the entire Prefect_ battlegroup was docked here, getting repairs made before the next mission. When the Pelican lands I jump out, grabbing my duffel bag from the truck at the station.

A nice lady at the reception desk hands most of us a set of keys, whoever wanted them, I walked outside and I pressed the unlock button, one of the civilian warthogs blinks. Inwardly I groan when I step into the vehicle, the only driver training I had ever received was from my dad and the Marine corps basic training.

I do my best to get to my hotel room in one piece which ends as soon as I hear a police siren go off behind me. I pulled over and the cop stepped out of his car, I roll down my my window and he stares at me.

"Yes?" I ask, impatiently.

"You are driving like a drunkard." He tells me, I just shrug.

"Step out." He tells me, I open the door and I step out, he holds a small device and I breathe into it when he instructs me to, he blinks at the results.

"Let me get this straight, your not drunk." He tells me, I nod. "Get back into your car and stop driving like that." He says to me, his tone laced with warning.

I manage to drive to my hotel and get settled in before walking over to a German bar across the street, labeled 'Gut Reich' which makes me laugh when I first read it, I step in and I order a drink, a bottle of whiskey is set before me.

I pull out my UNSC card to swipe it but the man behind the counter shakes his head. "First one's on the house." He says, nodding to my UNSC shirt. "The rest you pay for." I laugh and I take a swig, blinking as the whiskey takes its effect. I finish off the glass and I swipe my card again, another glass is set before me and I drink again, this process continues until I black out, waking up the next morning with a massive headache.

"Are you going to leave now?" I hear a female voice behind me say.

I clutch my head. "Dunno." I say quietly.

"Why so down? Drinking away your sorrows?" She asks, I just groan.

"Can't tell you." I answer, ONI had instructed us that nobody was to find out about the Covenant until the right time, messages were censored and people were taken off the board for spreading rumors about another race, I'm sure the refugees from Rullins were instructed the same.

"And why not?" She asks, in response I hold up my dog tags, I hear an audible sigh. "I guess that's why you have this pistol." She says, holding up my magnum with distaste.

"Gimme that!" I say, drunkily, she just laughs.

"Tell me why you're drinking so bad, then." She says to me.

"Fine... All of my family is dead, Innie's blew up our house." I lie, it was the only thing I could come up with, and it was half true at least.

I see her smirk drop for a second, she tosses me the magnum and I catch it as I sit up, luckily the safety is still on. "Sorry..." She says, still staring at me.

"Just fine." I answer, standing with a grunt, my headache starting to fade.

"Anything I can do to help?" She asks, I laugh. "What's your name?" I ask her.

"Lydia." She says to me, I nod.

"Friends just call me Shrake, nice to meet you." I say, shaking her hand.

"Shrake? That a nickname..?" She asks.

"Nope, my last name." I tell her, she just nods.

"Well, come back here anytime, were always open." She says, I nod and thank her, walking out. I walk over to as all pay phone, I swipe my card on it, the UNSC cards were accepted pretty much everywhere for anything, amazing of you ask me.

I called a taxi which picked me up and drove me to the nearest phone store, where I spent the rest of my funds for that campaign, I uploaded my number to the phone book in the Eztergom area and then I took the taxi to the ONI headquarters. The place was massive, one of the biggest in the city, when I stepped in I was greeted by a nice lady with blonde hair who showed me to Dean's office.

The man stood in the corner of the room, staring out the window at the city, he had a suit on, pale skin and black hair, faded blue eyes and stubble along his face.

"Good to have you back, Ryan." He says to me, turning and sitting down, gesturing for me to do the same.

When I sit he folds his hands on to the table, leaning over.

"How was your first drop?" He asks with a smile.

"You fucker." I answer, my fists clenched in my lap.

"I already reviewed your helmet camera footage, but I want to actually hear what happened from the man himself, so I ask again, what happened, exactly?" He asks me, his face completely straight.

"I watched a lot of people die, including close friends, I saved civilians and watched children die, and then when I come here to drink away my sorrows I'm not allowed to tell ANYONE what the actual fuck had happened!" I yell the last part, my hands tight on the table as I stand, I hear movement outside, I sit back down, Dean looks at me , surprised for a second.

"You're not allowed to tell people what had happened because we don't want panic, panic could destroy the UNSC, and everyone here at ONI knows it." He says to me, calmly.

I sigh, he starts speaking again. "I see that you are no longer able to shoot effectively, I thought the promotion and the class change was a nice touch, was it not?" He asks me, I just nod in response.

"Thank you for the report, Ryan, you can leave now." He says to me, nodding towards the door, I step out and I blink, a memory flashing before me.

_

I groan in frustration as Gunnery Sergeant Jackson leans over me as I do my fifteen push-ups, the men around me snickering as my arms start to shake.

"C'mon fat body! Five more!" He yells into my face.

The men behind me laugh as I finish and I stand up, the Sergeant moves on, continuing with his lecture about the old Marine Corps. The men behind me, Galvin and Owens constantly annoy me with their shit eating grins and snickering, they always asked how I joined up so early and why I wasn't home sitting in school, I mostly ignored them and continued to stare straight ahead, they wouldn't get me in trouble again.

"Like I was saying, Private Shrake has fucked up more times then I can count, which is a bad fucking thing considering who keeps getting him busted." He yells at us, staring past me at Owens.

"Sir!" I yell, I move out of the way as he walks past me, the Sergeant is smaller than Owens but he has an attitude of a bulldog.

"Owens! Galvin! As Marines you need to work as a team! Whenever Shrake here fucks up, your doing his fucking punishment until I can start counting!" He yells at them, he then turns and I step back into formation. I can literally feel the two glaring at me.

We all head off to the bunks when we are dismissed, I lay down and I try to sleep, I watch Galvin and Owens walk out with their pillow cases in their hands.

I fall asleep but in seconds I feel a hand clamp over my mouth, cutting off my supply of oxygen for the moment. I feel something hard smack down on top of me, but I can't see who or what is doing it, I see a white blur fly down into my gut, it feels like someone is dropping bricks on to me on purpose.

I try to cry out but the hand tightens around my mouth, I bite the hand, the man cries out, people around us start to wake up. I thrash wildly and I roll off the top bunk, hitting the polycrete floor with a grunt, another white flash above me, time to move. I roll under another bunk, the Marines around me start to get up, a fight breaks out between a few of the assaulters and some of the Marines.

I stand and I duck under one of the pillows, slamming my fist into the Marine's chest, knocking him over, I grab the pillow case, it is full of rocks. I slam it down on to him, over and over until a hand latches on to my shoulder, I calm down, my anger taken out on the soldier before me.

"Shrake, get back to bed." A voice says calmly, I turn, the Gunnery Sergeant stands behind me, full drill instructor dress. I nod and I drop the case, climbing back on to my bunk.

The next morning, the bodies of Cadet's Owens and Galvin were shipped off campus.

_

That was how I felt now, devastated but angry, mostly tired, I nod to the blonde as I walk out, I look ahead, Eztergom, beautiful as always, beckons me forward.

I do as ordered.

_  
Author's note

So, I have kept to my schedule of a chapter per week so far, I'm proud of myself for that, and I am excited to see new faces in the comment section, I hope more come! I can't wait for my story to gain more exposure, I want my writing to be tested by the world. But anyway, now that I have shared my dream I can explain the order of characters.

Marine  
ODST  
Pilot  
Ranger

That's how the chapters will go unless I do a half and half chapter where I feel like I have left too much out, I hope you enjoyed, review, favorite, and follow for more, share with your friends, sister, brother, and parents, I'll see you all next time.

Read on  
-Rsk


	11. Metal Rebound

Chapter X: Metal Rebound

Reach, Epi Eridinus System

February 25th, 2531 UNSC Calendar

Sergeant Anson Hawkins

UNSC ODST Department

I exhale loudly, aiming down the sight of a civilian standard MA37, the closest thing I could get to the standard issue MA5B on Reach. I had been basically living and breathing at this range; The Slinger ever since I had gotten here, shooting out most of my problems during the day and drinking away my sorrows at the night, i hadn't seen Taylor and Wolfe since we had gotten here, but I know they are around.

I fire in short bursts at the target, bullets rip away at the mid section of the target, making a nice area of effect. My gun clicks empty and I then realize I was shaking, I look around to see people staring at me and the rifle I am holding, the world around darkened because of the dark range glasses I wear. I put the gun on to the table, and I turn to look at one of the people staring, I flash my ODST tattoo, a sign of true craziness among the civilians of the UNSC, the second they see it they withdraw their gazes, I walk out of the room into the bathroom.

I clutch the edges of a sink as I one handedly wash my face, I look up at myself in the mirror, my range glasses had already been taken off when I walked in here, so now my face was blatantly obvious.

My hazel eyes are paler than normal, the old scars remain on my face, one of the main reasons I don't take my helmet off. My hair is brown, but messy from long campaigns and forgetting to make it standard again, I trace the crisscrossing scars across my face with one of my fingers, only a few had seen them. The scars bear my hatred and my shame, I sigh as I remember how I had received them.

Specialist Anson Hawkins

Berlin, Germany

April 5th, 2521, UNSC Calendar

Unit, Classified

The streets of Berlin were burning, the Insurrectionists had a serious home to pick with the German government. I was young for the business, around twenty, sitting in that Pelican, I watch my team, Farren, Jock, and Dilly, all three of them the best killers I knew, true black ops. It would be the last time I saw them.

The Pelican lands, and we jump off as it starts to fly away, I wear a standard issue full face helmet and lightweight armor, for mobility and stealth purposes. The rest of my team wears the same, some painted different colors.

We all duck behind a few abandoned cars, idly chit chatting in team comm, we had switched from English to German, the pilot was American, like some of the Marines pinned down in the city. I look over at Dilly, he was peeking around the car, his shoulder exposed to the street in front of us. I watch as his shoulder is torn off, blood spraying on to the street behind us. I unsling my MA5B from my magnetic clamps, aiming it down the street.

"Shiesse! Fick!" He screams as he falls over, blood dribbles from his mouth as Farren runs over to help him.

"Holen Sie sich zurück! Scharfschützen!" I scream over at him, but it's too late, another round from said sniper blasts the top of Farren's head off, brain matter drips from his ruined head.

"Wir brauchen Unterstützung aus der Luft!" I hear Jock yell into the radio, an American starts talking.

"English you fucks!" The airman yells.

"We need fucking air support on our grid!" Jock repeats, the airmen responds with the sniper exploding in hellfire. We move again into an alley.

Rapid German is spat in our direction, several M7 SMG's aimed in our direction. I duck into cover as they spray, Jock is lucky enough to have fast reflexes and jump behind a dumpster before they opened up.

I pull a frag grenade from my belt, holding it up to Jock, he nods, I pull the pin. "Out!" I yell as I throw it over my cover between the enemies down the alley.

I pop out of cover as it goes off, I spray along their cover and finish off what was left of their squad. "Clear." I call over to Jock, we start to move again.

I look down the alley, a cry for help is screamed, one of the terrorists crawling, one of his legs cut off by the explosion, his hand is clenched around something. Jock aims his rifle.

"Jock wai-!" I start, but he fires, the alley erupts in flames, knocking my helmet off, I feel a massive sting across my face as I hit the ground, staring straight up at the blue sky.

I splash my face with water again, remembering everyone would cause me mental distress, but I don't care if I'm honest. I walk out of the bathroom and out of the gun range, picking up my giant machete and my M6G Magnum, putting both of the tools in the proper place on my belt.

I groan when my cell phone starts to ring, I pick it up and I tap the answer key on the screen. "Hello?" I ask, I hadn't spoken in about three days, my voice raspy from alcohol.

"Hawkins, it's Taylor." I hear her say.

"Whatsup, glass eye?" I ask her, I smile when I hear her groan.

"Wolfe wanted me to check in on you since you went off grid for a little while." She says.

"Gotcha, Taylor, I'm twenty nine, I don't need a baby sitter." I tell her.

"Well, what have you been doing for the last three days, then?" She asks, I step on to the side walk and I walk while I talk.

"I've been drinking and shooting." I answer.

"Evidently you do need a baby sitter, you remember not to tell anybody about... Them?" She asks, trying not to alarm the people around her.

"Don't worry about it." I answer, rolling my eyes slightly.

"Alright well- Wolfe! Stop that." She says with a giggle.

"You're going to make me sick, Glass." I say to her.

"I'll talk to you later, Anson." She says, hanging up.

I sigh, stepping into a small military bar, I had already shown my badassery by putting a Marine on the floor for back talking me, shortly after showing him my tattoo that marked me as a unique one of a kind Helljumper.

"What'll it be, Hawk?" I hear as I sit down, I look at the bar tender, a civilian who figured he'd do something nice for the veterans of the Insurrection war.

"I'll just take some Corona." I tell him, he nods and starts to make me the drink, I put my head in my hands, looking down at the counter.

"Here ya go." He says, placing it in front of me. "Hawk? Bro you look like you need to get laid." He says, my head snaps up.

"The fuck?" I ask with a laugh, he just grins. I get started on my drink as he explains himself.

"You just look lonely, and terrible, you also stink considering you've been walking out of here drunk every night for the last three days." He tells me, I just nod.

"A girl is the reason I've been coming here." I answer, he just raises an eyebrow.

"What's her name?" He asks.

"Her name was Haley." I answer, putting emphasis on 'was'.

"I see, lost her in battle?" He asks, I just nod. "How'd she go out?" He asks me, my brain clicks with a lie as he asks, I know I can't tell him how she actually died.

"Insurgent IED on Rullins." I answer, reaching into my pocket and pulling out her tags, he examines them and hands them back to me, I put them back in my pocket.

"Sorry for your loss." He says, apologetically.

"Just fine." I answer, finishing the glass, he pours me another and I down it.

"You're not getting drunk tonight, that's your last one, brother." He says, stepping away to help someone else, I watch him go, stopping in front of a Marine Sapper, surprisingly a woman.

She wears her BDU's and a grey T-shirt with the words 'UNSC Marine Corps' across the front, she has auburn hair and a pretty face, her left leg shifts uncomfortably, she has blue eyes although one of them is paler than the other.

I finish off my drink and I wait for the barkeep to walk away from her, I stand and I sit down next to her. "How're you?" I ask.

She just shrugs. "I've been better." She says, a thick Irish accent laces her voice, she turns and examines me briefly her eyes following the scars on my face until they locked with mine again.

"What happened?" I ask her, my left eyebrow raised.

"Lost my entire squad on Juno." She answers, I just nod, I had read the file about Juno, a human victory, one of the first in this new war.

"At least you won." I answer.

"Were you not on Juno?" She asks, I nod.

"Rullins II, lost all of my squad but two, and then reinforced some Army guys when they were in desperate need of assistance." I explain, she nods.

"Which branch are you in? I'm a Marine Sapper." She says proudly.

More than likely she hadn't noticed that I was an ODST because I was literally wearing blue jeans, black boots and a black shirt. "ODST, and I kinda guessed you were a Sapper from the shirt." I answer, she raises her eyebrows in surprise.

"You were looking?" She asks, a grin spreading across her face, literally stone walling me.

"Ah... No?" I answer, I am the worst liar ever.

"Uh huh, anyway, what's it like in those drop pods of yours?" She asks me, turning from the topic causing me stress.

"Very comfortable, especially when you smash into the ground at three hundred miles per hour." I answer with a laugh, she just grins and downs her drink.

"How old are you, ODST?" She asks.

"Technically, that's classified, but the fact I'm a Black op and not a Green op can probably tell you." I answer, a shit eating grin on my face.

"So, around thirty?" She asks.

"Bam, ONI sniper." I tell her, she laughs and we keep talking for a little while, originally from New Alexandria, she joined the Marines when she was twenty five, working on Longsword bombers until the unofficial ONI draft for more soldiers against the Covenant happened, where she became a Combat Sapper, who always went in first and made sure our guys had trenches or some other type of man made cover to keep them safe.

I explained my story about being an ODST, leaving out my experience in Germany and being screened by ONI, which was still classified, I told her about training, the one day we did war games.

ODST Boot Camp

September 7th, 2526, UNSC Calendar

Boot camp was hell, after Berlin I had joined the Colonial Military, which was quickly disbanded a year ago after the first battle of Harvest. Yeah, that's the stuff you learn in the final phase of ODST training.

But, now that I was on the ground of the training facility, after an orbital drop, I had to get focused. This exercise was a war game, team one, my team, dropped from orbit and attempted to attack the facility that team two was defending, all while using paintballs that could knock a charging bull on its ass unconscious.

I step out of my pod after I launch the door forward off of its hinges, I grab the MA5B from the weapon holster inside and I crouch down, looking around while my HUD tried to get feedback from the rest of team one.

"Bam, your dead." I hear from behind me, I turn my head and I see Winters crouching in a bush, his gun aimed at the ground.

"Fucker." I say with a laugh, he jogs out, the rest of One behind him, we all get into a circle.

"Right, Team two is holed up somewhere in that direction." Winters starts, pointing through the forest towards a stone compound. "Which means we gotta find a viable distraction to make sure they can't see the main team." He says, we all nod, snow starts to drift from the sky, hitting the ground all around us. "That'll work." He says, that's when the blizzard starts.

Our team trudges through the forest, most of us find cover under bushes and rocks to cover us from the snow, our ODST armor was for training purposes which means we didn't have the full, heat controlled environment inside of our armor. We were left to freeze, but then again, so were they.

"Alpha, move up on the first wall of the compound, cover your tracks, over?" I hear Winters say, he was over to our left by ten yards with Bravo team, Alpha team consisted of me, and three other guys by the names of: Hasi, Mcooley, and Degain.

Hasi was our fire team leader, like plants in the spring we rise up out of the snow, trudging forward and covering our tracks as we go. When we reach the facility we halt on the wall, I hear footsteps on the other side of the wall.

"Hawkins, knife out, hit these fuckers." Hasi says, I step to the front of the line, pulling out the training knife we had been given, outfitted with a taser instead of a blade, this would give the impression of sticking someone, without causing any permanent damage. I'd leave the temporary part for my victim to worry about.

I spin around the wall and I stab the taser directly into the man's chest armor, I spin around, the taser connects with the second man's helmet, electrocuting him and putting him on his ass.

"Hawkins, status?" Hasi says from the other asks of the wall.

"Two down, six to go." I answer, my team moves around the wall, quickly burying the unconscious men in snow and marking them on the instructor's net for pickup.

"Winters, your clear to move up." Hasi says through comm.

Bravo team seems to materialize next to us, we cover our sectors before splitting up again, Bravo moves to the right of the compound while Alpha moves left, we don't run into any contact on our way to the front door.

Other than training equipment, our team was given a flash bang, military purposed, it was the only real thing we possessed. The doors open, from the inside.

Writers tosses his flash bang straight into one of Two's members, Winters quickly shuts the small wooden door and waits, a loud bang comes from the room, Winters gestures for Alpha to move in, I step in front of the door and I kick it open.

I walk in, Hasi and Mcooley fire two shots each, both shots hitting the only two guards in the room.

"Four to go." Winters says, we all walk in.

The door slams shut behind us, I hear something get wrapped around the door knob.

"Hey fuckers! Watch out!" I hear from above us, three frag grenades, outfitted with paint fall into the room.

Apparently I decide to be the only sensible person and I run to the edge of the room, a wooden table sits untouched, I place my hand on it and I flip it, taking cover behind it. The grenades explode, sending paint everywhere, hitting everything around me.

"Fuck!" I hear Winters scream before going silent, the door opens and I get ready.

"Double tap everyone, Sarge says we haven't won yet." I hear from the door, I hear metal boots on the floor and gunshots as they tag everyone, I grip my paint Magnum as they walk over to me.

I jump up, the two men in front of me obviously weren't expecting that as they try to raise their weapons, I pop off two shots, each one hitting one of the men in the chest and knocking them over.

Another soldier raises his MA5 SMG variant at me, I fire and hit his face plate, another frag grenade rolls into the room and I duck behind the table again.

Once the grenade pops, I reach around the table and I grab one of the MA5's the soldier's had been holding, I pop out and I spray around ten shots out of the door, a horn blares in the distance.

I look around, I hear a comm link click on to my HUD.

"Team One wins." The camp AI announces.

"Wow." She says, she seemed surprised by my story, one of her eyebrows raised.

"What? Don't believe me?"

She grins. "No, I definitely believe you." She says to me.

"Well, I've said my part, I'm sure your training was no way near as intense and brutal as mine." I say to her, she laughs and starts the story.

"Well actually, one of our tests they put down live land mines from like three hundred years ago under our firing range, and told us to find and disable them." She explains, I nod and I maintain eye contact, paying attention.

"Well, considering how old they were, the mines were supposed to be malfunctioning and only beep a little bit when you step on one, and most of them were, except for one which was a miracle, that thing was fully operational and nobody found out until it was too late..." She says.

"You don't have to tell the rest of the story." I tell her, I feel odd, my body is more than likely calling for more alcohol that the barkeep was not going to hand out.

She nods. "Alright, well how long are you going to be on Reach?" She asks.

"Ten more days." I answer, she nods and we exchange phone numbers, she then walks out of the bar.

I stand and I think the barkeep, I walk out the door and up the street, admiring Reach's architecture, I find a quiet hotel and I grab a room using more of my Special Operations raise.

When I step into the room, I am greeted with the smell of a clean room, a soft bed sits in the middle of the room, a TV in front of it with a carpeted floor, the bathroom being next to the door, I decide to use it before hitting the sack.

I wash my hands afterwards and I then throw all of the blankets and pillows off of the bed, I pick up the mattress and I lay it down on to the ground next to the bed. I lay down on it, my lights shut off automatically as I fall asleep.

I wake up, and I stand, my body taking autopilot as I eat, get changed and brush my teeth. I walk out of the apartment, but there is no hallway, just four doors in front of me, I look into the first one, Haley sits in the room, similar to the interior of the ODST pod. She starts to melt away, I look away and I head over to the next room, the blonde I had met at the bar sits there, cowering in fear of me, I look down and I realize I am pointing an MA5 SMG straight at her, I fire.

I cry out as her head explodes, I move on. Wolfe and Taylor sit in the next room, time stops around them as they kiss, a goodbye kiss. Wolfe stands and walks away, disappearing until a gunshot echoes throughout the room. I walk to the next room, but this time instead of standing at the door I walk inside, several ODST's stand next to me, we all get dressed into full battle armor.

Several men walk into the room holding weapons, a BR55 is roughly shoved into my hands, we turn to the left face in unison, facing an ONI officer, his face blurry.

"Your duty here is to keep a secret!" He yells to us as we walk out of the room and into a hallway, outside to a brick courtyard, fifteen unarmed men wearing bags on their heads sit facing the wall.

We line up, facing away from the men. "About face!" The officer yells. We all turn, all of our helmets are polarized.

"Present arms!" He screams, we all in unison aim our weapons.

"Fire!" He spits, we open up, I personally splat two of them to the wall, blood seeps from the wounds of the prisoners.

A crowd cries out, I turn, a little girl runs past our firing line, clutching one of the men.

"Hawkins!" The officer yells, I stop aiming at the men and I stand at attention.

"Deal with the rat." He says dismissively, I salute and I step forward, the girl looks up in fear before my metal gauntlet collides with her face, knocking her to the ground.

I unhook a pistol from my belt, my vision fades as I pull the trigger.

I'm in full combat gear again, I jog around a corner of an alleyway, I take a look at the sky, several Covenant cruisers hover above me. I jog out of the alley on to the street, abandoned cars and bodies litter the streets, I look around and I recognize the architecture.

Reach is in flames.

My eyes fly open, my body drenched in sweat, I had rolled out of my makeshift bed in my nightmares. The phone starts to ring.

"Answer." I call out to the phone machine, I reflect on what I had seen in the dream, causing me to shudder.

"Hey Anson." I hear on the phone, it sounded like the girl from the bar.

"Hey." I call out, the phone catches my response.

"You sound distracted, you doing anything?" She asks, I stand and I pick up the phone.

"Just recovering." I answer.

"From what?"

"Nightmares, part of ODST disorder." I answer her.

She laughs. "Got it, you wanna hang out later?" She asks.

"Kind've weird for a girl to ask out a guy isn't it?" I ask her, innocently.

"Anson, we solved this problem five hundred years ago." She tells me, I laugh.

"Sure, just send me a place."

The phone beeps as she hangs up.

The power shuts off. I look around, I grab my shirt and my fatigues and I put them on, I grab my black boots and I the them tightly, I jog out of the apartment, someone screams from down the hallway.

I run down the stairs of the hotel, and out the door.

A Covenant cruiser sits above.

I thrash and I wake up on the floor again. The phone rings. "Fuck!"

Author's note

Hi...

Sorry for tricking you ( if you were tricked ) but I feel that this character, Anson, has literally seen and been through enough shit to have not been able to tell the difference between a dream/nightmare and real life. I dunno about anybody else but sometimes I have dreams where I think I am awake, then something fucked up happens and then I actually wake up. Anyway, this is chapter ten, time to celebrate... I guess, in other news I have been balancing on a thin line above a pit of dangerous things while balancing school and video games I feel like playing and writing by uploading every Wednesday, and keeping my grades in check, which is fantastic.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed! Leave a review if you want to critique/ inspire me or a favorite/follow to make me feel good about myself when I look at my story through the Manage Story option.

I would like to personally wish you all a VERY merry Christmas, or happy holidays which is more politically correct.

Danke for reading!

Keep doing so

-Rsk


	12. Soft Beds

Chapter XI: Soft Beds

Reach, Epi Eridinus System

February 22nd, 2531 UNSC Calendar

Chief Warrant Officer Amanda Kile

160th SOAR Longsword Detachment

"C'mon Mandy..."

"Nope."

"You haven't even been down there yet!"

"Nope."

"God you can be such a child sometimes."

"Oryan, I'm doing simulations with this god damned AI until I can get it the fuck right." I tell the man next to me, I am siting in a simulation chamber, a mock flight helmet over my head and the hangar of a virtual hangar in front of me, the AI patiently waiting for me to take off.

"Mandy, let's go down to Reach, this is like the third leave you've done this." Oryan says, still standing in the way of the simulation door.

"Fine." I answer, I can almost hear the AI sigh as I leave the chamber.

"Thank you, plus you promised me lunch." He says, I laugh and I follow him to the shuttle, he really wanted me to leave the ship, he packed all of the things I would need from my room, creepy, but thoughtfull,

We walk on to the Pelican and I sit down, placing my hands in my lap. Oryan sits next to me, he chats with the Marine next to him for a few minutes before staring down at his own boots.

"Doin' ok, Oreo?" I ask, he laughs and looks up at me.

"Thinking of a place to get lunch." He answers, I groan which makes him laugh again.

"Good thinking, but I hate to break it to you, we can be partners by the craft, but I don't think I am physically attracted to you." I say to him, the Marines on board start to chuckle, causing Oryan's face to go red.

"Well- I- uh-." He stammers, which causes an uproar of laughing as we break ship atmosphere and enter Reach's gravity well.

"Don't worry about it." I say to him, sitting back, one of the Marines stares at me for a few seconds.

"Same goes for you, buster." I tell him, the girl next to him punch's his arm, the rest of the flight goes by silently.

I sigh when we finally hop off of the Pelican, Oryan right behind me, he pushes one hand into my back and guides me to the exit, all of our bags already being delivered to the hotel the UNSC had chosen for us. We get into a taxi and drove off, Oryan had chosen a good place for lunch. We quietly chat while the taxi drives us to our destination.

When we reach the restaurant, we exit the taxi and we walk inside where a waitress finds us a seat for two people. I sit down across from Oryan, opening the menu and looking at the choices.

"You enjoy the flight down here, Mandy?" He asks me, I look up at him and I grin.

"Sure, I dunno if you enjoyed it, though." I say, he laughs and we go back to looking at the food options.

The waitress walks over again, asking us what drinks we wanted, I order a Coke while Oryan asks for Mountain Dew, two five hundred year old drinks served here.

The restaurant itself is classic, with the look of the 'classic' American Diner as they called it, the seats were padded with blue cushion and everything looked like it was from the 1950's as the information boards set up around suggested.

"What're you gonna get?" Oryan asks me, I look up at him.

"The first burger on the menu looks good." I tell him.

He nods in response. "Kind've plain, but hey, it's less credits." He says, which makes me laugh.

The burger I had chosen was basically plain, with just cheese, ketchup, and pickles added.

The waitress walks over with our drinks and we order the food we had chosen, we talk quietly while we wait for the food to come, every once in awhile I take a sip from the glass of soda set in front of me.

When the food comes, we dig in, I personally hadn't eaten since we got out of cryo sleep,

"So Mandy, can I ask you a question?" Oryan asks, I look up at him, his face is dead serious, I honestly never really looked at his face, he has hazel eyes and black hair, clean shaven and his hair regulation cut, unlike my longer hair, other than that he was completely normal, no scars visible on his face or neck.

"Sure."

"What's wrong with me?" He asks.

"What do ya mean?"

"Well, you seem to reject me whenever I ask you someplace or talk to you." He tells me.

I laugh. "Oryan, nothing is wrong with you, but we're partners in the Longsword, which means if I get shot out of the plane and we're going out? You'll never recover, which is not a mistake I'm making... Again." I say to him, he nods.

"But you're the best pilot I know, so how would you die and make me emotional?" He asks.

"You're thinking one sided, what happens if we're dating and you die in combat?" I ask him, he sighs, a sign that he recognizes what I am attempting to say.

"I don't care if I die, and I'll be at 100% when you die, but after I'll be fucked up, I dunno if you know that." He tells me, I nod.

"So you don't care?" I ask, he nods. "We'll try it." I say to him, he grins and we finish our food.

"Awesome, I'll pay." He says.

"Right, also, try anything and I'll kick you into next Thursday," I tell him, he raises his hands in surrender which makes me laugh as the bill arrives.

When Oryan pays we walk out, Reach's sky scrapers tower over us, crowds of civilians shove past us before we finally walk towards the hotels.

When we arrive I stay outside while Oryan checks in, the 160th usually put pilot and co pilot in the same rooms for training purposes and well, nobody wants to be alone.

I feel a hand on my back, guide me away from the hotel for a brief second, and then a shove into a small alleyway next to our place, I turn around, several men can out around me, one of them holds a switchblade while the others hold broken bottles or poorly cleaned fire arms.

"On the ground." One orders, pressing his pistol to my head, there was around five of them, two of them with pistols.

"Mandy?" I hear Oryan yell from around the corner, the barrel of the pistol against my head makes me shiver as I fall to my knees.

"Check her pockets." The ring leader says, I feel the barrel of the pistol slide off of my head, giving me a chance to do what I do best. Kick some ass.

I get into a kneeling position, only a slight change that didn't seem to alert any of them, my hands slide into my pockets, my magnum holster bumps my hands, my left hand slides out, the man who had put his gun to my head was starting to kneel down to check me for cash.

I quickly unhook the loaded fire arm from my belt, pressing it to the gunman's gut and pulling the trigger, sending his blood splatting on to my flight jacket with a loud bang. I spin again, firing the magnum into the next gunman, straight into his kneecap, tearing it off.

Three to go. I roll as the switchblade almost cuts me, I feel a sting on my ear, and lots of footsteps, screaming, my magnum shot has not gone unheard.

I stand, aiming at the switchblade man, who tries to roll out of the way but it's too late, a magnum bullet tears through his skull, putting him on the ground.

I feel my feet swept out from under me, I fall on the ground, one man holds down my arms, forcing me to drop my magnum. The other man smashes his fist into my face, causing me to cry out, he continues to beat me, sometimes going for the gut, but after a few punches he stands and smashes his foot into my rib cage, making me scream in pain. I hear an odd sound, the man drops on top of me, the other man let's go, allowing me to grab my gun, pressing it into his foot and pulling the trigger, rubber and blood spray into my face, he screams and falls over, clutching his foot.

I sigh and I drop my gun, still on the ground, my adrenaline wears off and the pain hits me like a stone brick, I feel my hands behind my back, metal rings click around my wrists, and I am lifted into a car on a stretcher along with some of the men who I had shot, I black out when the car begins to drive.

I wake up on a bed, a nurse looks at me before dialing a number on the phone, several police officers walk in, all armed.

"Ms. Kile is it?" One of them asks.

"Yes." I answer, I look past them and I see Oryan in handcuffs, facing away from the window.

"We have you on a couple of charges Ms. Kile, homicide, possessing an illegal fire arm, and assault, do you accept these charges?" He asks me.

"No." I say to him, he raises an eyebrow.

"Alright, let's hear your side of the story."

"First off, my name is Chief Warrant Officer Kile, 160th SOAR Longsword detachment, so you can drop that illegal fire arm charge." I say to him, the man nods, the officers around him taking notes, I had my guess that I was being recorded.

"Second, I was signing into my designated room, paid for by the UNSC with my friend over there." I say, pointing at Oryan. "When I was jumped by those fuckers with bullet holes in them, they were attempting to mug me, you probably found two more fire arms, they had them at my head so I responded how I was taught in training." I tell him, he just sighs.

"Get her and the guy outside out of cuffs, and send word to the other officers not to believe a word those criminals say without it matching her story." He says to the officers beside him, one moves to uncuff me while the other walks over to Oryan.

Once Oryan is uncuffed, the officer takes off down the hall.

"Next time, try to contact the police." He says to me, walking out.

Oryan walks in after the officer leaves and crosses his arms. "I almost got arrested because of you." He tells me.

"And whys that?" I ask.

"I chased a police cruiser yelling that you were innocent and apparently they don't check for dog tags when searching for weapons." He says with a laugh, I laugh with him.

"Let's get out of here." He says as we walk towards the exit of the hospital.

We walk up the road, the street shakes slightly, the loudest sound I had ever heard erupted from up the street, Oryan and I rush up the road, pushing past Civilians as police cruisers and ambulances fly up the street, smoke billows from one of the sky scrapers

I know something is happening, several men dressed in full Marine battle gear run into the building, Oryan and I withdraw our magnums, running in. I watch as one of the Marines bitch slaps an armed man, the man drops his SMG and flies to the left, I blink in surprise, but I don't have much time to think about it.

Another explosion tears through the building, the elevator doors open, multiple men wearing bandana's and old helmets with MA37 assault rifles, civilian brand, rush out, shooting wildly at us.

I duck behind a flipped table, I pop up and I blast one of them straight on the chest, a fist size hole tears into his chest, I continue firing at the men and women there, I see signs of what this building is. Interplanetary Diplomacy HQ, is what one of the signs at the counter reads, this wasn't a normal robbery.

When all of the criminals are dead or gone, the Marines turn on us, a red laser from a Falcon drop ship comes through the window and aims at my head.

"Who are you?" One of the Marines asks.

"Chief Warrant Officer Kile, and Warrant Officer Oryan, stand down." I say to him, they continue to aim at us.

"You don't have authority over Special Operations, lady." One of them says to me, there are about fifteen of them on the room.

"What kind of Special Operations?" I ask, one of the men step forward.

"My name is Sergeant Khannon, and I am the highest rank here, our authority comes directly from ONI, so I would have to ask you follow us." He says to me, we follow them out of the building and out on to the street.

We get shoved into a troop transport, and before I know what was happening we had arrived at ONI's Head quarters.

We enter the building, the interior is elaborate by design, but I didn't have the time to admire. The Marines lead us into an elevator and we go up to the top floor, where we are lead into a debriefing room.

"Who is this?" Someone in a suit demands.

"Two members of the UNSC who saw too much " Khannon says to him.

The man nods. "If you would please come with me." He says to Oryan and I.

We follow him, not like we have much of a choice. He leads us into a small office where the door closes and clicks behind us, locked.

"I understand you are both UNSC, luckily for you that means I won't have to take care of you the... Messy way." He says, I gulp. "What you witnessed back there is Operation TREBUCHET, one of our super soldier's went a little overboard with that punch." He says, we are both speechless, still thinking about the 'messy' side of ONI. "So if you could do us all a big favor, and not tell anybody about what you've seen, it would be a huge help, besides, you already hold the secret of the Covenant Human war, this should be easy." The man says, we both nod. "I will contact you, I already have your information." He says to us, the door clicks again and we walk out.

"Right, we're taking a cab." Oryan says as we walk out.

"Yeah, sounds like a plan." I say to him.

We flag a cab and we both hop in, it drives us to the hotel, again.

This time we both go inside, we quickly catch the elevator to our floor and walk into our room, two small beds occupy the space.

"So, I told you that Reach was a fun place." Oryan says, uncomfortably.

I laugh. "Definitely, I had fun." I say to him, still standing next to the door of the room.

"What do we do now?" He asks, I just shrug.

"It's pretty late."

"Yeah, I realized."

"I've got an idea." I say.

"What's that?" He asks, raising one of his eyebrows.

I lean forward and I kiss him on the lips. "Just follow my lead."

Authors note

So, how was your day? Good? Good. I'll admit, right now, it's three days away from Christmas, but I calculated the last chapter to be uploaded on the 24th, so I'll just say it again, Merry Christmas, even though this will be my first chapter of 2015! So exciting.

Anyway, I wanted to introduce Sergeant Khannon because this is not the last time you will be seeing him! And more than likely I will dedicate the next chapter to Operation TREBUCHET.

Like I said Merry Christmas, and have a happy 2015, review, follow, and favorite for more of my passion!

Read on

-Rsk


	13. The Bigger They Are

XII: The Bigger They Are...

Jalaka X, Jai System  
April 2nd, 2531  
Sergeant Nicholas Khannon  
Operation TREBUCHET Special Operations Team

Fucking Innies.

For whatever reason no matter how prepared or how trained you are, they always manage to sneak up on you. Even augmentations can't stop that.

We had arrived here a month earlier, HIGHCOM had shown us the way to the Innie's camp and then prepared us for an assault, they said it would be an easy in and out. Yet here I was with four of the six in my team, pushing off waves upon waves of the bastards.

We had gotten radio confirmation that Rangers were coming to our location, which didn't make things much better, now that I look up in the sky and I see the reason the Innies act as if it's their last day alive.

_  
Two days earlier.

"Move it!" I yell to the soldiers behind me, we all had just disembarked off of the Pelican that had taken us to the Innie sector of Jalaka. This planet is absolute hell, if hell was cold, snow rains down everyday, luckily we get some kickass gear much like the ODST armor to wear in conditions such as this.

I raise my BR55, the six soldiers around me fan out, I know they have my back, and I have theirs.

I had known them since training, Harley, Uroh, Jamele, Anders, Knopp, and Farlend, each one of them reliable in every way.

Uroh and Harley are the best of friends, Uroh has blue eyes and blonde hair, the classic Aryan look, while Harley has almost silver eyes and black hair, giving him this certain badass look, both of them are Polish and basically major league football players, moving rocks if you will.

Jamele is the one of two girls on our team, FoxFire. She has long hair, despite regulation, but any officer would be scared of this girl. She has piercing emerald eyes and light brown hair, kissed by sunlight, she has the form of a regular woman, not very muscular either, but that didn't stop her from bitch slapping every Innie she sees, and anybody standing in her way. She has the classic Northeastern American accent.

Anders and Farlend are both Australian, don't even ask why I got stuck with them, both looked similar except for their hair and eyes, Anders has brown eyes and reddish hair while Farlend has green eyes and brown hair, both semi muscular, with Anders being a bit bulkier than Farlend, but Farlend is taller than Anders.

Knopp has blonde hair and a rocking body, how she got past training without ruining it is beyond me, she has chocolate eyes and pale skin, with a slight Irish accent.

We walk through the snow scattered wasteland, my helmet constantly gets constantly bombarded with snow, I wipe off the front ever now and again. Gunshots in the distance explain the need for our team, the Innies were using the trees to take out Marines and police officers, so we are here to make sure they don't make it out of their caves.

We reach the entrance to a small cave, I raise my fist, everyone stops as I unhook a satchel of C12, I pull off a tiny amount, placing it on the left side of the cave mouth, I place a detonator into the clay and we walk away, our orders are to detonate once we are back in UNSC territory.

The next cave is a trap, I start placing the C12, my soldiers form a three-sixty perimeter, watching in every direction for possible contact.

"I'm getting something on tracker." Jamele calls through squad net.

The loudest shot I have ever heard echoes through the blizzard, I watch Harley get one straight to the helmet, which shouldn't have been a problem if they were using civilian issue rifles. Which they aren't.

"Sniper!" I call out, my soldiers run into the cave, everyone except for Uroh who hits the snow next to Harley, grabbing his dog tags and his gun, running into the cave with the rest of the squad. I follow suit.

Once we are far enough into the cave, footsteps echo at the entrance we had come into, I press the detonator, the cave fills with screams and explosions.

"We're moving." I say through squad net, I start moving through the dark cave, my BR55 light on, leading the way. I hear shuffling up ahead, I raise my fist again, then I move it forward, crouching and gesturing to my sides.

My squad understands, crouching down next to me, guns raised. I click my tongue, waiting for whatever it was to show itself.

Another squad sized unit jogs down the hall towards us, they wear parkas and combat goggles, most of them hold MA37 rifles; some with the more compact MA5 sub machine gun.

I sigh as they all raise their weapons. "Squad, stand down." I say to them, my squad puts down their weapons, we all stand up with our hands raised.

The leader holds a BR55, just like me, he steps forward. "All of you, helmets off or else we dome you." He calls out, I gesture for helmets off. My squad follows orders, catcalls to out when Jamele and Knopp take their helmets off, I look back at my squad.

The man turns around. "Grab their weapons." He says to them, the squad moves forward without caution, snickering and calling out some offensive things.

The leader walks forward and picks up my BR55, examining it. "This is scrap metal, you have bad taste." He says, I clench my jaw.

"The winds blow as they howl." I say to him, he raises his eyebrow, that's when things got interesting.

My squad pounces on the unsuspecting Innies, I see Jamele smash her fist into one of their faces, sending the man flying backwards.

I uppercut the leader, he flies into the ceiling, then lands in front of me, the fist fight continues for about ten seconds, leaving several dead and the rest heavily injured, all Innies.

"Leave no traces." I say to them, Uroh picks up the weapons, snapping them in half, while Jamele curb stomps any remaining enemies, I watch Knopp place down a incendiary charge, ready to burn the remains.

"Let's disappear." I say to them, we walk forward, another explosion, none of us look back. We exit the cave and we move on, before a radio transmission comes in.

"All UNSC personnel are to dig in, large blizzard inbound." I hear, I look back at my squad. "Start digging in." I say to them, each one of us has a UNSC Army brand shovel for situations just like this, we all start digging fox holes, reinforcing them with hard snow we make by pouring some of our water on to the snow, wouldn't make much of a difference to lose water at this temperature.

When we finish we have a literal camp of fox holes, each around five feet deep, Knopp, Uroh, and Jamele start digging small tunnels to connect each fox hole, Anders and Farlend watch out for incoming contact while I shove snow into everybody's canteens.

Once I finish I close the canteens, pressing a small button next to the cap that would melt the snow into water before stopping the heat.

"Camp is set!" Knopp calls out, I get into my foxhole.

"Nicely done, people, prepare for the storm." I say over squad comm.

"Hold up! We got a whole lot of heat sigs movin' towards us!" Anders yells, everyone starts to get ready, I turn my small sight on the BR55 to thermal, I look through the storm, Intel had reported that the Innies here used Jalaka's major storms to attack UNSC facilities.

Artillery shells start hitting all around us, sending shrapnel and snow raining down, the heat signatures start to disappear as barrage after barrage of artillery hits.

"Check the tunnels, make sure they're not collapsed!" I yell through squad net.

After about ten minutes of silence a radio transmission hits squad net. "All tunnels green." Anders says.

A loud whistle hits again, we all sink into our foxholes. "Keep radio comms open! I want to know if anybody is wounded or dead I should fucking hear five versions of what I'm hearing now!" I yell.

"Copy that-." A loud explosion shakes the ground.

"Fuck! Farlend's hole just got hit!" Anders practically screams through radio.

"Check it." I say to him.

"Fuck... No good, Farlend's dead." Anders says, I sigh as the heat signatures reappear.

"Everyone engage everything with a heat sig." I order, everyone opens up, several of the figures fall over before they take cover. Bullets fly in our direction, skidding over our foxholes as the enemy blindly fires in our direction.

"HIGHCOM, this is TREBUCHET Team FoxFire, we have engaged multiple enemy contacts and artillery, we are in need of support, over?!" I yell through radio, firing a three round burst at one of the contacts.

"FoxFire, this is HIGHCOM, ranger support inbound, over?" I hear.

"Roger that I-" the comm cuts to static, my BR55's ammo counter flickers, and my HUD turns off, leaving us completely in the dark against god knows his many enemies.

I duck down and I crawl through one of the tunnels. "Thunder!" I call out.

"Flash!" Anders says as I enter his foxhole.

"You got thermals, Andy?" I ask the man, he shakes his head. "Negative Sergeant, something is going on here, and I don't fucking like it." He says.

"Right, keep an eye out, I'm making sure everyone is alright." I say to him, clapping him on the shoulder as I enter the next tunnel.

I crawl into a conversation between Jamele and Knopp, both of them looking out.

"Thunder." I say.

Knopp flips around, aiming her gun at me. "Flash." She says before returning back to looking.

"Status?" I ask them.

"Green."

"Green."

"Right, good, I want you throwing deployable trip mines, Bettie's, anything you got, just spread them out." I say to them, they nod and I move on to the next foxhole

Uroh sits by himself, he had taken his helmet off, he looks fucking cold, his face pale, his lips blue, he stares down at a pair of dog tags in his hand.

"Thunder."

"Flash." He says, halfheartedly.

"Status?" I ask him.

"Sergeant, this is FUBAR, I wanna go home." He says to me.

"Uroh, we're going to punch through this entire line of Innies and then get home for breakfast, I promise." I say to him, he just nods, I clap him on the shoulder and I crawl through every foxhole until I reach mine where I stand up again.

An explosion rocks the ground, more gunfire, I see shapes through the blizzard charging directly at our foxholes, bayonets attached to their MA37's.

I open fire, going single shot and using a shot per man, but every time I took one down, another would take his place.

I pull the trigger on one of the bastards getting too close, he hits the ground, rolling into my foxhole screaming in pain. "Cover me!" I yell, I hear Anders open up with his M247L, I flip around, pulling my knife from my belt, I pin him to the ground with my leg and I push it to the man's throat, ripping his helmet off, he grabs my hands as I push down towards his throat.

The man starts to push on my hands, my knife drops out of my hands, I clasp my hands around his throat, he desperately rips my helmet off and does the same to me.

I choke out, I punch him in the throat and I make a grab for my knife, we roll around for a second, I feel my head pressed against the snow, he is on top of me, I kick him off, he slams into the side of my foxhole, the M247L fire ceases, Anders must be reloading.

I lunge forward with my knife, I stab the bastard in the throat over and over, and then I leave his body in the snow wall with my knife in his throat.

I pop up out of cover, my helmet still on the ground behind me, I start to fire again, Anders opens up, explosions rip the snow from its place on the ground, turning it into red hot morale killer, sending the death snow flying and burning the less heavily armored Terrorists of the Outer Colonies.

Eventually they stop coming, gone to regroup for another wave.

I yell across to the other foxholes. "Get out of these holes, grab ammo, extra weapons, and grenades! When you're done with that, stack up bodies for cover!" I scream at my squad, we all come out of the foxholes, grabbing anything explosive and then dragging the enemy bodies to our foxholes where we stack them for cover, nothing says bad morale like shooting your already dead friends.

I leave my knife friend in the hole, to remind every other bastard who jumps in here that I know what the fuck I am doing.

"Mines are reset, Sergeant!" Knopp calls out as everyone jumps into their newly fortified foxholes.

"Good! Prepare for second wave!" I call out, I rest my BR55 on some poor bastard's stomach, waiting for the shapes to return.

Screams erupt from the other side of the blizzard, I grin, the gunfire signals the Rangers were probably here. The enemy runs towards us again, like wild animals being hunted, they are greeted with a wall of bullets to end their suffering.

The ground starts to shake, the sound of a ship directly overhead of us fills the atmosphere of battle, everyone seems to drop their guns and look up.

A Covenant Supercarrier floats overhead, the Innies stare up in awe and pure shock, but I know better.

"Everyone down!" I yell, my soldiers hit the floor as plasma rounds fly from the sky, carpeting the Innies and crushing the remainder of their forces.

The ship stays in that position, alien troops start deploying from gravity lifts.

"Hold fire! Let them pass unless they see you!" I call out, relying on the blizzard to hide us from this new threat.

The Elites and Grunts that dropped in are wearing the same armor they usually are, which is strange considering the cold. They walk in front of our fox holes, occasionally finishing off an Innie or two, until one of the Jackals among them looked around, sniffing the air, I hold my breath, hoping he doesn't find my team and I.

An Elite ultra walks over to the Jackal, knocking him upside the head to get him moving, I exhale slowly, and I continue to watch them, one of the Elite's holds up a device, my BR55's display flickers to life and I hear my HUD turn on, I quickly shut it off, I crawl into Anders fox hole.

"Anders, HUD's off, pass it on." I whisper to him, urgently, he nods and quickly crawls into the other fox holes.

Another explosion rocks the ground, a squad of Grunt's get their blood splattered on to the snow from Knopp's Bettie charge, the Elites call out orders, the company sized force of aliens spreads out, looking around for us.

I put my helmet back on, basically useless but it still allowed some heat to my face, I watch the aliens, I look over at Anders' fox hole, his helmet is gone from the ground, everybody in my squad knew the drill.

Gunfire from behind the wall of snow signals the Rangers had been found.

"HUDs on!" I yell to my squad, I turn on my HUD as the aliens turn to see who had said that.

My squad's HUD's automatically check in with vitals, everyone was cold as fuck but no wounded.

"Open fire!" I yell through comm, two more explosives go off, sending more alien blood flying on to the snow, I engage the alien with the tracker device, he was more than likely using it to track our HUDs.

The aliens are surprised by our attack, thankfully the storm allowed for us to scare the living shit out of them with them barely knowing where we are or how many of us there are, Anders especially helped with that as he lays down a wall of machine gun fire.

Elites start dropping, Jackals try to deploy shields but they are quickly cut down or blown up by grenades as they do so, Grunts start to panic.

Possibly the worst feeling of combat is friendly fire, which is a tactic the Russians mastered ages ago to get their troops going in the right direction. Apparently the Elite's were fans of it, too.

An Elite major calls out an order, his energy sword appears in his hand, he starts to cut down every Grunt, Jackal, or Elite attempting to run and not fight.

"Hold fire." I order, watching aliens get limbs or entire halves of themselves cut off was entertaining considering our current position.

The Supercarrier starts to deploy more troops, two companies land before MAC shells start to hit the ship, damaging the ship and taking out at least a platoon worth of Elite's.

The carrier bugs out, flying off towards the edge of the blizzard, it's shields flicker to life as more MAC shells slam into it's hull.

The aliens eventually stop running and sort themselves back into squads, which is when we start reeking havoc.

"Everyone, I want every fucking grenade you have on those bastards, on my mark." I order, I get acknowledgement lights from everyone.

The aliens finish their formation, the Jackals surround every squad, their shields together, but it would be easy to overcome.

"Mark." I order, I unhook a grenade from my webbing, throwing the explosive over the shield wall, I do this for all three of my grenades.

The aliens seem to gasp when the tiny explosive spheres land among them, the Jackals break formation, attempting to run, but the shrapnel from the explosives catches them, Knopp and Jamele seemed to enjoy throwing in some C12, splatting every unshielded or lightly shielded alien in the formation.

And that's when the two companies of aliens step in.

A wall of plasma flies towards our fox holes, we had taken out one of the three companies that carrier had just deployed.

The survivors of the grenade attack join the ranks of the other companies, the aliens suppress us as they move forward.

"Ladies, Gentlemen, it's been a pleasure kicking ass with you all, full auto, we make our stand." I order, flipping my BR55 from semi-automatic to fully automatic.

"An honor Sergeant."

"See ya on the other side."

"I took a few down with me..."

"Hey, outta luck and explosives!"

I nod, loading in my drum clip for my weapon, a magazine just for the occasion, I make sure my pistol is ready to go as well, just in case I live to use all of my bullets.

"The Rangers charge with you, Sergeant." I hear over the radio.

"On my mark." I say to my squad and the Rangers.

"Rangers are ready, See you in hell boys!" I hear over comm.

"Mark!" I yell, the alien suppressive fire had ceased for the moment, more than likely overheating weapons, I jump out of my fox hole, my finger depresses the trigger of my BR55, I see Anders, Utoh, Jamele, and Knopp do the same, friends and family die together.

The aliens seem taken aback by our sudden actions, then the Rangers hit them.

"Fuck you!" I scream at them, I watch Grunts and Elites get cut down, a whole bunch of grenades from the Rangers go off around the enemy.

The Elite's drop their guns, watching their conrads fall, they pull energy daggers and swords, screaming as they run towards us.

My BR55 clicks as it runs out of bullets, the barrel red from the excessive use, I sling it over my shoulder and I pull my magnum, unloading my clip into an Elite major, and dropping him.

My HUD flickers again, the Elite's shields flicker too, an EMP.

"Charge the fuckers!" I scream, I pull my knife from my belt, charging into the blizzard at the enemy. We smash into them, using our augmentations to our advantage, the Rangers run in with bayonets attached to their MA37's and BR55's, combating the Elites.

I slash through an elite minor, my vision blurring as I cut through enemy upon enemy, I feel an extreme pain on my knife hand, I start punching and slapping Elite's with my metal gauntlet, sending them flying or breaking their mandibles with my enhanced strength.

More Elites run through the storm at us, energy swords blazing, FoxFire and the Rangers charge the new force, I continue to beat the living shit out of any alien in my way, my vision stops blurring, my chest explodes in pain, the twin tips of an energy sword slam through my armor and through my chest, coming out the back, I look down at the sword, an Elite general stands on the other end, what seems like a smile on its face, I realize that I had lost my knife, and I look at my hand, well, what is left of it, half of my hand is gone, the other half cauterized by the blazing hot energy swords.

My vision turns red, the General reach's his hand over to my helmet, grabbing it and crushing the glass on the front, he rips it off my head, throwing it behind him, looking me dead in the eyes.

My remaining hand snakes down to my belt, a small block of C12, primed and ready to be detonated sits next to my magnum.

"Your race will perish at the hands of the prophets, imbecile." It says to me, I smile at it.

"Then you'll come with me, bitch." I spit out, my hand grabs my magnum, pointing it at the C12, the aliens eyes go wide, I pull the trigger.

_  
Private First Class Garrett Uroh

I slam my fist into an alien's face, an explosion rocks the ground, I look over, a combination of red and purple blood stains the snow, Sergeant Khannon's vitals flatline.

"We kill all of these bastards, now." I growl into the radio, another battle cry lifts up from FoxFire.

I unhook my machete from my side, one of my prized possessions from hunting Innies, I slam it straight into a Major's gut, and then I rip it out, leaving the bastard there to die, I move on, eventually we cut through the remaining enemies.

"Everyone ok?" I ask, the Rangers had logged on to our squad net before the attack.

"Yeah, everyone from FoxFire but Khannon is fine.." Anders says.

"How many Rangers are left?" I ask.

"Four of the nine." Anders replies.

"Holy fuck." I mutter. "Let's go find them..."

_  
Authors note

Well hi! How're you all? I'm feeling good with my author's display of power, I am willing to kill off a whole lot of non-important characters, but I feel that Sergeant Khannon was kind've important, was he not? But this is not the only chapter of FoxFire, I will be adding them into the order of characters in the view of PFC Uroh so yeah, fun times.

That's all I have to say because I'm unoriginal and I am also falling asleep on an airplane.

So favorite, follow and review, I'll see ya all next week!

Read on  
-Rsk 


	14. The Harder They Fall

Chapter XIV: The Harder They Fall

Jalaka X, Jai system  
April 2nd, 2531  
Corporal Andrew Wood  
173rd Army Airborne Rangers

Jalaka seems cold as hell, but of course we spend most of our time inside the heated UNSC base, considering not much happened here on Jalaka. New team, new gear, the UNSC gave our battalion jet packs to use and brand new armor, along with a while bunch of recruits for Legion company, all who are arrogant and have no idea what kind've shit they're getting into.

Legion 2-1, my squad had received every recruit it needed to fill, and my promotion to Alpha fire team leader, along with Jane, who is now Bravo fire team leader. Our new squad leader, Sergeant Drubo has only once seen combat, but everyone else, not including Jane and I had not seen any kind of fighting.

We had been given Privates: Hark, Yeren, Daag, and Kir, along with two Private First Classes: Burrick, and Quinn. Fresh out of basic and Ranger school, each trained to be the very best, but not able to prove it to this world.

I sit on my bunk, fiddling with my dog tags, I wear a green UNSC Army Ranger T-shirt and my BDU's, nobody was wearing their armor or had any weapons besides a UNSC standard magnum and a combat knife just in case something actually does happen.

Jane sits down next to me. "Hey Andrew." She says to me, I look at her and I grin, Dubos had decided as fire team leaders we needed to spend a lot of time together, which is no problem by my standards.

"You hear about any deployments?" I ask her, she shakes her head and I sigh it had been two months since our last fight, and I still wanted some poor bastard to shoot at.

That's when the Sergeant walk in. "Ladies and gentlemen! Get your coat on, we're going for a fucking walk!" He yells at us, the unanimous 'Yes Sergeant' erupts from us as we all get dressed into full battle gear, I grab my MA37 and I magnetically attach it to my back, I watch my fire team do the same, I was given Daag, Hark, and Quinn in my fire team, Quinn is the weapons specialist, carrying a SPANKr rocket launcher on his back and an M247L in his hands, plus plenty of ammo for both, the ultimate killing machine. Daag carries the standard MA37, I made sure to check his rucksack for ammo, he grabbed enough to supply the entire squad for a day, plus hand grenades. Hark had grabbed a BR55 standard burst rifle, plus a 5x zoom optic on top of it, unlike the standard 2x.

My fire team gets ready in a minute, trying their best to get suited up and grab the gear from their duffel bags, I notice Hark pull a small cross on a chain from his bag, but I decide not to talk to him about it, we can ask him to go die, so I'll let him keep a 'Soldier's faith' as they called it in Basic.

The Sergeant walks back in, full battle gear, a BR55 strapped across his back, he looks around at the squad, all of us on full battle armor and full gear.

"Column formation on me!" He yells at us, we all get in front of the Sergeant in the classic school line, or column in the Army.

"March." He says, turning around, we start walking with him out of the UNSC barracks into the snow, and then out of the facility. The Sergeant uploads several markers on Jane's and my HUD's, tagging our patrol locations.

"Squad, double column, Alpha left, Bravo right." The Sergeant orders, we all arrange ourselves properly.

"Legion 2-1, this is HIGHCOM with a top priority order, abandon patrol, move to assist TREBUCHET FoxFire at new waypoint, over?" I hear over squad command radio, which consisted of the Sergeant, Jane, and me.

"This is 2-1, what exactly is TREBUCHET?" The Sergeant asks.

"Anti-Innie team, that's all you get to know, now move out... Shit, get that on scanner!" I hear before the radio cuts out, we start towards the waypoint.

Gunfire erupts through the snow, a blizzard had started a couple minutes ago, it didn't really affect our full armored soldiers.

"Alpha, move up to the right, if you see contact, bury yourselves into the snow." The Sergeant orders over comm.

"Ya'll heard the man, on me." I order, my team follows me into the wall of snow ahead, we move slowly in the horizontal line formation, otherwise known as line formation, our weapons raised.

Someone charges through the storm at us, a bayonet leveled at us, being the sign of an attacker, Quinn puts a burst into the figure before it could even materialize through the storm. More charge towards us, gunfire erupts to our left as we open up on the enemy, one of them reaches us, he wears goggles and a snow cap, a heavy jacket with a Kevlar plate on top and jeans with more Kevlar on them.

Of course, that Kevlar didn't stop my bullets. I crouch down and I hold down the trigger for two seconds, dropping the makeshift soldier, he drops his MA37, crying out in pain.

"We need help up here!" I call back to the rest of the squad, my fire team was just now digging into the snow, using it as cover from the enemy.

Alpha and the Sergeant materialize from behind us, digging in with us, guns raised towards the wall of snow.

Bullets start to fly towards us, the two M247L users in our squad suppress the storm, cries of pain and agony erupt over the sound of the wind, explosions land around us and to our left, causing all of us to go face down into the snow, hoping a shell wouldn't land on us.

The explosions stop, and the bullets resume, flying around us and over us, it is very obvious the enemy only has the slightest clue of where we are.

"Bravo, all of you, cry out in pain as if you'd been shot." The Sergeant orders quietly over proximity radio.

I scream out, as if in pain, the rest of my team does the same. Several whoops and hollers come from the other side, figures start to materialize, guns raised.

The M247L is not only the perfect suppressing weapon, but it also makes it seem like you have an entire platoon sitting in front of you instead of just one or two people, which is exactly what happened.

The second there were enough figures in the snow, the entire squad opened up, fully automatic, tearing through the enemy, causing the snow around them to turn completely red, at some points a body part would fly when Hark throws one of his precious grenades, giving the enemy even more distress.

Eventually, our guns click empty, we reload and wait for any more enemies to come, which they don't, now realizing the full potential of our little squad.

"2-1, on me." Sergeant says, standing slowly, the front of his armor covered in snow, we all move forward, guns raised towards the enemy.

A shot rings through the storm, I watch almost in slow motion as a .50 cal anti material bullet flies straight into Daag, literally tearing him in half, covering the snow all around him in crimson blood.

"Ho fuck!" Hark yells, hitting the snow, we all do the same, getting down.

"Suppressive fire!" The Sergeant yells, he continues to stand, we all open fire.

"Sarge! Get the fuck down!" I yell at him, he just waves me off and starts firing bursts into the snow.

Another shot rips through the snow, nailing the Sergeant straight in the head, causing him to fall back on top of Jane, leaking blood on to the back of her armor.

That's when our electronics shut down.

My HUD flickers and dies, the bullet counter on my MA37 does the same.

"Jane! You alright?" I yell over at her.

No response, I scoot back and I crawl over to her, she is shaking, the Sergeants body still on her, I grab the corpse and I move it, I crawl next to her.

She looks at me, her visor is not polarized, and she looks terrified, I look at her, depolarizing my visor, I rest my helmet against hers for a second. "We'll get out of this." I mutter to her, she quickly nods and calms down, our visors polarize within seconds of each other's and we get back into position, I look around at the blizzard, watching for contact.

The blizzard in front of us lights up different colors, at first it is the yellow of machine gun fire, then purple, pink, blue, and green, constantly flickering behind the wall of snow, the ground shakes and a loud roar goes over the snow storm.

Our HUDs reactivate. "Everyone, tech down." I order, a common order within a stealth mission to basically go blind for a little while so that the enemy can't pinpoint your position, like radio silence but more tech involved.

I deactivate my HUD and I flip a switch on my MA37, causing the ammo counter to flick off. Everyone does the same, we stare ahead, figures start to come through the blizzard.

"Hold fire." I order, keeping the figures in my sights.

The figures materialize, so many of them, walking in an almost perfect formation, some much taller than the others, all holding one hand weapons and alien armor. An explosion erupts from behind the group, several of the smaller figures fly up into the air before falling back down.

"Open fire." I order, my squad opens up, the first line of aliens fall, the rest of them open fire on us, but not before they are hit from behind by machine guns, we sandwich the aliens for about two seconds before the Jackals link together their shields and protect the aliens within.

"Quinn! Frag grenade over that wall!" I yell at him, he unhooks a grenade from his belt and throws it over the wall, it lands behind a Jackal shields man, the grenade explodes and shatters the formation. A plasma grenade flies back in response, sticking to Quinn, he looks at me in panic, I lift him up and I shove him away from the formation, he explodes with a brutal scream.

Of course, that left me standing with my hands up my ass. The aliens started firing at me, I hit the snow again and I grab my MA37, I open up on the enemy, dragging down an Elite ultra and a few Grunt's.

More explosions ripple through the storm, these ones much bigger than before, the ground rumbles as a large purple ship slowly flies over us, causing the snow around is to lift up and swirl around, covering us.

I reactivate my HUD and my bullet counter, something I probably should've done before, but with an army of aliens in front of me, I had forgotten quickly about minor problems, and now I am covered completely in snow, my suit keeping me alive and heated.

"Radio check." I say through squad net.

"Check." Jane says.

"Check." Burrick says.

"Check." Kir says.

I blink when nobody else checks, and I feel a very real sadness for Hark, and Yeren, who had probably died before being buried by the snow, their bodies lost forever.

I feel a tap on my shoulder, I look up from my snowy grave, more UNSC servicemen, around five of them.

"76th Rangers reporting, heard ya'll had a tiny problem." The man above me says, he wears the same armor as we all do, holding a BR55 in his hands, he has a southern American accent and his visor is polarized.

"Yeah, help dig up the rest of my squad." I say to them, I start digging Jane out, more plasma bolts fly past us, apparently the Covenant had received the same treatment from their own Supercarrier.

A radio transmission flicks across the network for a second, the TREBUCHET team saying their goodbyes.

"The Rangers charge with you, Sergeant." I say over radio, I tap the trigger of my MA37, downing a Grunt with relative ease.

"No rounds."

"I'm dry."

"Bayonets on, ladies and gentlemen." I say to my squad, I stand and I look at the man who had saved us. "What's your rank?" I ask him.

"Corporal Big Tex, at your service." He says, offering his hand, I quickly shake it before attaching my bayonet.

"Alright then Tex, you ready?" I ask him, he nods.

"Rangers, the second TREBUCHET charges we will be on their heels and we will kick some ass." I say over radio.

"Hooah."

"I hear that."

"Squid's are best served sliced."

"Let's fuck'em up."

FoxFire charges, I watch the figures through the snow.

"Charge!" I yell in proximity channel, we surge forward, straight into the Covenant line, the Grunts start to panic, only one Elite manages to get a shot off, taking out one of Tex's boys.

I stab my bayonet straight through a Grunt's face mask, I hear the methane start to escape, the Grunt would be struggling to breathe if it didn't have a hole through its forehead.

The Elites around us forget about organization, they throw their plasma weapons and fire up their energy swords, I watch Tex get gutted by one, his blood sprays on to the Elites arm for a second before the wound is cauterized by the heated sword, Tex falls and so does the Elite after Jane gives it a mouthful of lead with her magnum.

Jane throws her magnum to her right, slashing her bayonet through a Jackal, I watch a TREBUCHET soldier botch slap an Elite, making the alien fly in the direction in had been slapped in, I take a second to process what I had seen before getting back into the fight.

The fight wears on, one of two companies of aliens are defeated until Tex's fire team is totally wiped out, thanks to a Jackal using its energy shield to decapitate the last soldier, the scariest thing I have witnessed in a long time.

An Elite kicks me backwards, I fall and I roll back as its energy sword slashes the snow in front of me, vaporizing it, I stab at the alien with my bayonet, the alien slashes the knife off of my gun, I roll again as it stabs at me, I stand and I smash the butt of my gun into its face, one of its mandibles breaks off, it screams in pain and wildly slashes at me.

I eject the magazine from my gun, I throw the empty clip at the monster, it stumbles back, I throw a new clip into the receiver, I fire a burst into him, and then I switch targets taking out a few more before my gun clicks, this time for good.

An explosion rocks the battleground, I look behind me, the snow covered in red and purple blood, no bodies to be found, one of the TREBUCHET team members is crossed off of the roster.

My shoulders sag as I realize we had just won, the remainder of the enemy forces were running towards the unknown, mostly Grunts and Jackals, all wanting to survive the deadly force they had just witnessed.

"Who here is in charge of the Rangers?" Someone yells from behind me.

"Hooah!" I call out, turning around, four figures stand in front of me, all equipped with modified ODST armor, the TREBUCHET symbol welded on to each of their helmets.

"Damn good job, sorry about your losses." One of the FoxFire team members says to me, I just nod unsure of how to respond considering this had been one of the better missions for 2-1.

"I'll be sure to recommend your promotion." He says to me before turning and leaving, the other three on his flank, they disappear through the storm, headed back towards UNSC controlled territory.

"All of you, on me." I order on the radio, we walk off towards UNSC controlled territory.

This was a new battle to be fought.

_  
Authors note.

Hello! How're you all doing? So I would like to start a new thing in the review section to keep things interesting for readers, so please read this note. Alright! I have decided that if you want to ask any questions to a specific character, you can ask them in the review section, and then that character will respond in author's note to get any confusion out of the way, or you can also just ask questions or give suggestions and I will also respond in the authors note, so keep reviewing! Share with your friends, neighbors, neighbors dogs, online love interest, or any other person.

Read on  
-Rsk


	15. Fault Line

Chapter XIIII: Fault Line

Rouen III, Uriah system

May 8th, 2531

Private First Class Ryan Shrake

UNSC Marine Corps, Joker company

Rouen is one of those planets that you expect to be a penal colony, but honestly it is just the opposite, a very barren desert with little water or interesting things to see, and yet it was a tourist attraction, which starts our first problem.

The Covenant had sent scouts to the Uriah system ages ago, the Prefect battlegroup responded to a call for help from one of fifteen planets in the Uriah system, several battlegroups were protecting other planets, which means we might get reinforcements. Yay us.

It also meant that two and a half million tourists on these planets received an unexpected visit from a genocidal alien race they had never actually seen before. Yay us.

My eye still hasn't healed, and they tell me that it will never be the same, even if I do see again I would need a bionic to do it, and honestly I think the weird new color of the knocked out eye looks cool, I can barely see out of it, my right eye helps a little, so I can still do day to day tasks, just not shooting genocidal aliens like I used to.

Anyway, back to the invasion.

Rouen has ten continents, it's a crazy big world which makes it very difficult to defend, especially considering the entirety of it is desert, which makes things even harder.

But hey, if you think about, we'll have more water and supplies fit for conditions since we are fighting on home turf. That might just be our only advantage.

The invasion for the enemy is going smoothly so far, in fact HIGHCOM hasn't actually planned any attacks yet, and of course we're getting our asses handed to us in space, considering the extreme advantage the enemy has over us in those situations.

Joker company hasn't engaged a single enemy contact, but now we're being ordered to do a supply raid, enemy ships busted straight through our defenses, not much of a surprise but they brought all of the essentials.

Water, food, hey! We just lost our advantage.

But there's still a chance we can get it back.

"Joker company! Attention!" The First Lieutenant calls out, Captain Rodney Greene steps forward, placing his hands on the briefing table, I am happy to be at the squad and fire team leader briefing, considering I need to know what kind of support we have and what we are dealing with.

"Ladies and gentlemen, today we deal with a specific area, Shrake will be deploying with me and Gorilla squad." He starts, Jast starts to speak in protest, but the Captain waves him off.

"Fine, I know Gorilla is only four strong, so I am sending Shrake, but I will stay." He says, Jast nods and goes back to attention.

"Anyway, we have three specific places we need to go, Alpha will be headed towards the main compound, Grizzly towards the abandoned neighborhood here." He points to a place on the holo table. "And Gorilla will be headed to the wrecked cargo vessel here." He says, pointing to another place. "Questions?" The room remains silent, the Captain nods. "Gear up, we leave in an hour." He says, everybody nods and files out, we are already on the ground, one of the main FOB's here on Rouen.

I follow Jast to the rest of his squad, I had all of my gear on except for my helmet and HUD glasses, which are at my side.

"Listen up Gorilla! Shrake is joining us on comm, Ramirez I want you grabbing the SPANKR, Khan, get on the M247L, and Figel will be guarding Shrake." He orders, he explains the plan to them and everybody nods, I put on my helmet and glasses while they grab their assigned gear.

Figel walks over to me, I nod to him, it was odd to be the same height as someone in the corps, I am usually the smaller one, only standing around 5'7.

"When you're ready report to the ready room" Jast says to us, Figel and I immediately step out of the door, headed down to the designated location

The men of Joker company all line up there, the doors in front of us lead out into the desert wasteland, from the chest plate down we have semi-controlled temperature to keep cool, but our heads remain without a proper barrier from the heat, our armor doesn't even cover our entire bodies, it was gonna be a helluva fight for us and the Covenant, both sides will be suffering from attrition unless the Covenant pulls some fancy horse shit.

The rest of Gorilla lines up, there are four squads in our specific platoon, and another platoon next to us that make up Joker, but our platoon's objective is much different than the other's which is to guard evacuation sites, we even gave them one of our squads to get it done, considering how the Covenant loves to aim the gun at civilians.

"Joker company! You have your orders, all objectives will be marked on your HUD... Now." The Captain says, objectives flash before my eyes, each one marked with a different animal face, and then a number in meters under that.

"Move out!" He yells, he pulls the bolt back on his rifle and turns, walking out the two large doors to the outside, I grip my MA5B tightly as we jog out towards the gorilla symbol, Jast in front, me behind him, then Figel, Khan, and Ramirez in the back. I look back past the two and I see the Captain, he steps back inside, the doors shut behind him.

"Radio check command channel." I say through my pack, the radio pack itself is not that big, it fits inside of my rucksack and connects to my helmet, a small antennae sticks out of my backpack, but it's not noticeable unless you are really looking for it.

"Lemur Charlie, Shrake you also have access to the air channel, you can call in Medevacs, air support, etc just make sure you put it by me before doing anything crazy, alright?" Captain says over comm.

"I'll try sir, but I'm a Marine, we're all about crazy." I say.

"Oorah, good luck." The Captain says, temporarily switching channels.

Seraphs fly over our heads, followed by some Longsword aircraft, the dog fight constant, Scorpion tanks and Armadillos roll past us, going towards a huge trench past our objective where a constant tank battle is happening, both sides evenly matched considering the Wraith's shields and the Scorpions shells that fly much fast than plasma mortars.

We move to the cargo cruiser, Elites stand around watching Grunts who are busy setting up purple barricades, the Jackals keep watch which apples fly wasn't working out too well considering we were almost within throwing distance.

"Shrake, move up to the cruiser with Figel, we'll cover you from here." He says, I nod and I start running once Figel does, we make it to the cruiser, smashing into the wall and covering either side of the cruiser to make sure no unneeded surprises were inbound.

Jast, Khan, and Ramirez move up after us, we all get ready for the fight ahead, but first we'd have to wait for Captain to give the order.

"Shrake, give all squads the green light to engage." Captain says over radio.

"All squads, Joker is cleared for engagement, weapons free." I say over radio, the areas around us seem to explode with hand grenades and tracer rounds, that was our cue to get moving.

Khan, Figel and I start moving to the left, several Elites and Grunts stand there, not paying attention, we take cover in front of one of the barricades they set up before popping out of cover and spraying them down.

The enemy falls easily in the swift motion, the Elites hadn't activated shields and the Grunts were always just meat shields until there were three hundred of them on the battlefield.

We move into the cruiser where we meet up with Jast and Ramirez. "Clear?" Jast asks, we nod and we start search around the inside of the tiny cruiser, no supplies left and no aliens left other than remains and barricades.

The ground shakes, causing us all to stumble, it shakes again and again until we are all on our asses which is when it stops. I personally landed on my back, smashing into the titanium floor, which did not help my case with a fragile, expensive long ranger radio on my back. I check my comm and all there is now is static.

"Radio's dead." I admit to them, Jast nods and looks around a little bit before pointing above us.

"There's a Beacon on the top of this cruiser, try using that as a radio." Jast says, I nod and I step outside of the wreckage, Khan and Figel follow me as I do, I start scaling the side of the cruiser which is easy considering half of the cruiser is buried into the ground.

A dead Jackal sits next to the Beacon, it's beam rifle sitting next to it, propped up on the Beacon. I attach my MA5B to my back before opening the panel of the Beacon and I start hooking my radio up to it, my HUD flickers back to life, I make sure my MA5B's ammo counter was working, it was, whatever had hit us just wore off.

"Shrake report- agh!" Jast says, the line remains open as I hear a thud noise and Ramirez grunting, then the line closes.

Khan looks at Figel and I. "I'm gonna go check it out." He says, I stop working on the Beacon and I look at him. "Bad plan?" He asks me.

"Yeah, if there is something down there it'll kick kick your ass." I say, he just laughs and hops down to where Jast and Ramirez are, or were. I continue to fiddle with the beacon, another shake of the ground almost sends me tumbling off of the roof, but Figel grabs the straps of my rucksack, pulling me back from sliding down.

"Thanks." I breathe, he just nods and I continue to work on the Beacon.

"Shit!" Khan yells, then silence only to be replaced by the sound of titanium hitting titanium, a sign that Khan had fallen over, but when I look at vitals, everyone is fine.

"Fuck it, I'm going down, good luck Shrake." Figel says, he slides down into the cruiser, I finally get the radio working.

"All units, be- multiple- immediately!" A radio operator says over comm.

"This is Joker comm, repeat last, over?" I say over radio, but all I get is static.

I hear another thud, and a groan, that's when I start getting scared. I detach my MA5B and I wait for a minute before carefully hopping down, I turn my weapons flashlight on, I wave it around the room until I see Gorilla squad, all of them unconscious, they didn't have helmets on, I walk over and I notice the helmets by their sides, each one seemed to have been ripped off, judging from the ripped straps.

I kneel down next to Figel, placing my MA5B down by my side, I pull a small auto injector full of epinephrine from my rucksack, I inject the needle into his arm and I throw the needle away, the needle hits an invisible wall and hits the bottom of the ship, a cloaked Elite Major appears in front of me, it opens an energy sword and swings at me, I roll out of the way, my MA5B back next to Figel who is now starting to wake up.

The Major advances and slashes at me again, I roll and I unhook my magnum from my side, I quickly tap my trigger, unleashing all of my rounds into the bastard, but it's shields hold, the massive alien swings again and almost hits me, I dive towards Figel who picks up his own MA5B and opens up on the alien, I slide next to him, grabbing my rifle and opening up on the bastard myself.

The alien staggers back as depleted uranium slams into it, causing its shields to flicker out, but the alien disappears, only leaving a purple blood stain in its place.

"Shrake, get everyone up, I'll look out for that bastard." Figel says, reloading his MA5B, I quickly nod and I use the last of my epinephrine on the rest of Gorilla.

We all step out of the cruiser, a trail of purple blood suggests the bastard ran away, but we don't follow, we focus on the brand new threat at hand.

The giant ass ship hovering directly over us.

"Back inside!" Jast nearly screams at us, we all dash back into the cruiser, back into the small cargo hold where we had held off the Major, it is now our personal Alamo.

Waves upon waves of Grunts start to get deployed from the ship, followed by Elites and a Hunter pair, they get into formation outside, luckily the empty cargo containers around the ship block our sight from them, never said it was lucky for us.

We all get into a cavalry circle, I tap a button near the ammo counter of my MA5B, a deployable bayonet slides out, the rest of the squad does the same as we all take aim in a circle.

The cavalry circle was originally used in the Napoleonic Wars, when enemy cavalry rushed infantry, they would layer themselves in a circle, the officer in the middle and point their bayonets like cavalry spike traps, effective and deadly.

But we weren't facing cavalry.

Grunts started to swarm the ship, the sound of automatic fire quickly ripping through the air, tearing through the enemy around us, and when they got too close, they would get a bayonet to the gas mask.

I depress the trigger to my MA5B and spray down three Grunts before my gun clicks. "Loading!" I call out, I drop the clip to my MA5B, fumbling for another. Jast holds his BR55 with one hand, his other holds a pistol which he uses to buy me some time as I reload, taking down a couple of Grunts with the .50 caliber bullets the magnum uses.


	16. Down Into Hell

Chapter XV: Down into Hell

Serfea XIV, Wipotowa System

June 17th, 2531 UNSC Calender

Sergeant Anson Hawkins

ODST First platoon, Second squad

Operation Jagged Fire: Counter Insurgency.

Our new ship was brilliantly named, as an ORION class. Battle cruiser, it was named Orion The Hunter, armed with two Mass Accelerator Cannons and several thousand Archer missile and Shiva warhead pods, it is literally the perfect counter insurgency weapon. Which is why we are kicking their asses in space.

I sit on my bunk, second squad got its own room, same with all of the other ODSTs, but this one was different, it feels empty, everyone dead. But the good news for me was that Taylor and Wolfe had stopped being so public, actually they only ever made small talk in combat, which is helpful for me, but not for them. I think they're spacing apart.

I put on my combat boots and I grab my M247L from under my bunk, nobody really questioned us, considering how edgy we are, and all of the fucked up but true stories of ODSTs ripping peoples arms off and bashing them across the face with it. At least I like to think they're true.

I stand and I take my helmet off, making sure nobody is around. I walk over to a mirror on the wall and I look at myself, my short black hair, my hazel eyes the scars that crisscross along my face, the dead look in my eyes all apart of what makes me.. Me.

I sigh and I sit back down on my bunk, I put my helmet back on, it hisses as it seals itself to my chest plate.

"So that's what you look like." A female voice says, making me almost jump through the ceiling.

"What?" I ask, I turn towards the voice, Taylor lays on her stomach on top of one of the bunks, her helmet is off, revealing her brown hair and blue eyes.

"You never really take your helmet off, so I never saw what you look like." She says to me, I nod.

"I usually don't like to show people my face." I say to her.

"Why not?" She asks, causing me to raise my eyebrows.

"Well, I dunno... I got like scars and stuff, and usually people ask about those kind of things so I'm never really comfortable taking my helmet off." I answer.

"So in other words, to be as scary and edgy as possible?" She asks, causing me to shrug. "It doesn't seem scary." She says.

Wolfe walks into the room, full battle gear with his M7 clipped to his belt, a BR55 in his hands. "Up and ready, we're deploying." Wolfe says quickly, looking at Taylor and I before stepping out.

Taylor jumps down from her bunk, she looks at me and smiles, starting to get her battle armor on.

"Good luck." I say to her, I grab my M247L and I walk out of the room, I meet Wolfe in the hallway who takes off his helmet, putting it under his arm as he speaks to me.

"You know what we're doing Hawkins?" He asks me, I shake my head. "Counter insurgency operation, these assholes have a lot against us, they have captured several Scorpion class tanks, a ground MAC cannon that could rip this ship in half if given the opportunity and a loyal civilian population." He says to me.

"So we're fucked?" I ask.

"Not necessarily, we're dropping in with a platoon of Marines and a whole bunch of Medic's plus some Engineers for repair and detonation." He answers.

"Any SPANKr rockets left?" I ask, he shakes his head. "Alright, I'll see ya in the drop bay, Gunny." I say to him, jogging ahead towards the drop room.

I am quickly stopped by a Marine Sergeant.

"What're you doing in full battle gear, soldier?" He asks.

"Why're you in my way?" I answer, causing him to narrow his eyes.

"You wanna do some push ups, Marine?" He asks me.

"First off, you're out of my chain of command, secondly, we're the same fucking rank and I'm not even going by Navy ranks, technically I outrank you Sergeant..." I check his name on my HUD. ".. Dex." I say to him.

He puts his HUD glasses on and looks at me, trying to get a name.

"Not gonna work, bub, unlike you I'm fuckin' black ops." I say, pushing past him into the drop bay, he calls something out to me before storming off.

I had wondered if any ODSTs were dropping with us, and I quickly received my answer as I step into the empty drop bay. I sigh at the idiocy I had to deal with on a daily basis, I sit down on one of the bench's before Taylor and Wolfe walk in, arguing about something.

I ignore them and I pull up a writing application on my helmet, I quickly mumble a message to be sent, my helmet nails the translation between my voice and the text. "Send." I mumble, the letter flies off, hopefully it will make it to Sara.

Honestly, I am glad that I met her, it was a lot of fun hanging out with her on Reach, even if I never ended up getting laid. I sigh at that thought, going straight into hell without a good memory to stand by, other than Sara in general.

"Hawkins you-" Wolfe starts, but he is rudely interrupted.

"Attention!" Someone calls out, I stand and I snap to attention, staring straight ahead.

"At ease." A rough American accent says, I turn to see who it is.

Captain Powell stands at the door to the drop bay, I see Dex behind him, a shit eating smirk on his face.

"I have heard about an ODST who has disrespected one of my NCOs, might I ask who it is, Dex?" He asks, Dex looks around, confused as we all have our battle gear on, helmets polarized.

"I dunno sir." He says, still looking around at us.

"If I hear about this again, you will all be demoted, am I clear?" Powell asks, we all just nod, I slam a magazine into my M7, making a satisfying click, I then load my M247L while listening to them.

Powell and Dex walk out, Wolfe looks at us. "Who the fuck did it?" He asks.

I laugh. "I really got to the fucker, didn't I?" I ask him, he looks at me, his helmet depolarizes.

"Hawkins, why the fuck would you disrespect the Captains lap dog?" He asks.

"He started giving me shit on my way here, isn't my fault." I say to Wolfe, I stand up and I look at him, my helmet staying polarized.

"Hawkins, take your helmet off." Wolfe says, I hesitantly do as ordered, Wolfe takes off one of his armored gloves, he makes a fist and punches me straight across the face, Taylor just watches silently. "I hear about anything like this, and getting demoted will be the least of your worries." He says to me, I had fallen over from the punch, but now I stand and I nod, putting my helmet back on.

"Alright, now listen, you've both had the briefing, you know what the hell is going on, don't fuck up." He says to Taylor and I, we both nod, my visor remains polarized throughout his short speech, I pull the hammer back on my M247L, ready for action.

The three of us step around the holo table inside of the drop bay, a woman stands there, her arms crossed.

"Kaly, show us the map if you will." Wolfe says, Kaly is the battle AI and a social interaction AI aboard Orion the Hunter, so a very smart AI.

"Right." She says cooly, she has a Western American accent, as she says this, a map appears on the table.

"This is the town on Sert, it has a high civilian population and is always very busy, there is plenty of cover and hiding places for the New Order as they call themselves, so be careful." Kaly says to us, we all nod.

"Two minutes to drop." She says to us, we all start to walk towards our pods, my M7 clicks against my leggings as I walk, my M247L in my hands. When I get into my pod I first slide my M247L into the weapon slot to my left, I strap myself into the seat and I run a systems check, the HUD inside of my pod blinks green as it checks everything.

"Ten seconds to drop!" Wolfe yells.

The pod door in front of me screeches as it falls down, locking into place.

I feel my stomach lurch as we leave the gravity of the ship, I look to my right, by the pod door shows the helmets of Taylor and Wolfe, Taylor grits her teeth as we start to fall, Wolfe has his face set in concentration, trying to get to the AO.

"Adjust eighty degrees." Wolfe says over the radio, I tap a command into my pod, the thrusters engage and turn my pod slightly, the pod starts to shake severely as we enter the atmosphere.

The windows around me darken as they polarize, making them hard as rocks, the shaking stops as the pod stabilizes and starts to get hot, causing me to sweat.

"Activate boosters." Wolfe says, I tap another command in, my pod lurches as it starts to slow down, a meter counter informs me we have broken through the upper atmosphere.

"Drag chutes.. Wait.. Now!" Wolfe says, I quickly slam my hand into the button, my pod lurches again.

The windows to back to normal, but the pod remains polarized, i cry out as my pod hits something and keeps going, I look through my window and I realize I am literally crashing through every floor of an office, I finally hit the ground.

I grab my M247L from next to me, I tap the open door option, but it beeps and doesn't work, I start pulling the levers around me, finally my door shoots away from my pod, slamming into a cubicle and breaking straight through it, fucking up some poor bastards office.

I step out of my pod and I grab the ammunition I need, stuffing it into my webbing and into my rucksack.

I look around me, my gun swiveling around as I look, the floor my pod stopped on is completely clear, deserted in fact.

"Hawkins, Taylor, check in." Wolfe grunts.

"Here." Taylor says.

"Doin' dandy, Gunny." I say.

"Good, something here is wrong, get to the waypoint." Wolfe says as a waypoint appears on my HUD.

I start jogging, I look at a map of the building and I realize I am on floor five of fifteen, my pod busted through ten damn floors before stopping, I sigh, it could've been more. I find a stairway and I make my way down to the first floor where I exit the building, taking to the streets, the street isn't completely empty, cars are parked on the sides of the road, like they normally would be if people were around. But the town is deserted.

I jog to the waypoint, I find Wolfe and Taylor covering each other. "Whatsup?" I ask Wolfe as I arrive.

"Kaly said this place is the busiest town on this damn planet." Wolfe says, using one hand to motion around. "And yet, I haven't seen a single soul."

I nod. "That's definitely strange, Gunny, maybe they knew we were coming?" I ask.

"How would they know?"

"Three metal drop pods falling at three hundred miles per hour isn't a good indication of ODST arrival?" I ask.

"We weren't up there long enough for them to clear the streets." He says, I nod.

"Jaguar, this is Romeo 1-1, do you copy?" I hear over the radio.

"We copy Marine." Wolfe says.

"Roger, we're not picking up anything other than- Oh shit!" The radio beeps and flicks as our HUDs flicker, but then go back on, only static from Romeo.

Gunfire erupts from behind us, all three of us stand and start to jog that way, we make it to the end of the street before two Marines run around the corner, one of them grabs me pulling me with him, Taylor and Wolfe follow the two into a small two story building, connected to a construction site.

"Taylor, on the roof, I need eyes." Wolfe says to Taylor, she nods and jogs upstairs, headed for the roof.

Ten seconds later she slides down the stairs, machine gun fire sounds from outside, I aim my M247L down the stairs to the first floor.

"There's a Scorpion outside, and it ain't friendly." She says.

A megaphone turns on outside. "UNSC, come out with your hands raised, or we blow up your building." A man says, I continue to aim down the stairs, standing still.

Wolfe looks over at Taylor. "Brit, you're gonna have to perform the best shot of your life in the next five seconds." He says to her.

"What do you mean, Nick?" She asks him, her helmet depolarizing.

"Wait, alls we have to do is go outside and surrender, right?" One of the Marines asks, my HUD marks him as Provate Cory.

Wolfe's helmet depolarizes, he looks over at the Marine. "Surrender is never an option for ODST's, but we have no control over what you do." He says, the Marine looks at his buddy, they both drop their MA5B's and walk past me, down the stairs and out the door, hands raised in the air.

"Fucking hell." I mutter, watching them go.

"Brit, can you get up on the roof and shoot that tanks fuel depot?" Wolfe asks, Taylor thinks for a moment and nods, she turns to go upstairs but Wolfe grabs her shoulder. "Be safe." He tells her.

"Aww c'mon Nick, I'm a professional badass." She says, escaping his grip and jogging upstairs.

I move upstairs with her, I peak over the ledge, the Scorpion aims its main gun at the two Marines, the back of the tank open.

A shot rings out from next to me, almost causing my ears to ring, of it wasn't for my helmet I'd probably be deaf. The Scorpion literally explodes, sending shrapnel in all directions, causing me to hit the deck, dirt and polycrete raining over Taylor and I.

"Everyone ok?" Wolfe asks over the radio, I wink my acknowledgment light, Taylor does the same. "Copy, get down here we've got wounded." Wolfe says before breaking off net.

I get up, brushing rubble off of me, I walk down the two flights of stairs, I walk outside and I set blood everywhere, one of the Marines sits there crying, both of his legs and his left arm are totally sliced up by shrapnel, sitting on the ground next to him.

His buddy, Cory is nowhere to be seen, until I turn around, his body is propped up against a wall next to our building, what seems like a hundred holes just in his chest cavity.

Taylor kneels down next to the bleeding Marine. "What's your name, soldier?" She asks. He starts coughing, some blood dribbling along his bottom lip.

"P-private Mcolley." He says to her, she nods and looks at him, furiously fumbling for her bio foam, she presses it against one of the mans stubs, but he uses his hand to push if away, it's the last thing he ever does.

Private Mcolley dies in Taylor's hands, before she stands and looks down at the body. "Marines are gonna give us hell for this." She says quietly, her visor polarizes again, she turns back to me and Wolfe.

Wolfe starts walking towards a waypoint on our HUDs, supposedly where the Marines are holed up, which is true as five MA5B rifles aim at us from the top of the three story building marked on our HUDs.

"Where're Cory and Mcolley?" One calls out, Wolfe holds up two sets of dog tags before walking inside, we follow him.

Wolfe steps into a room they were using as briefing, a small holo table is set up in the center, Sergeant Dex stands there, with a few other Sergeants, along with Captain Powell, going over strategy.

Wolfe steps forward and slams the dog tags down on to the table. "Why the hell did nobody tell us there would be armor?" He asks Powell, who raises an eyebrow at Wolfe's aggressive tone.

"We figured they were either decommissioned, or the Militia here won a major battle, we didn't know the Innies had access to it." He answers.

"And two Marines died because you didn't do shit about it." Wolfe says, Dex looks over at us.

"Two Marines?" He asks.

"Yeah, two of your guys, Dex." Wolfe says to him.

Dex throws a piercing glare at him. "Who are they?" He asks.

"They were human, now they're reduced to hunks of meat from an explosion." Wolfe answers, I grip my M247L tightly, Dex's Marines look at us, their fingers also on the trigger.

"Dex, get the fuck out of here." Powell orders, the bastard skulks out of the room with his two guards, Powell puts his hand up to his forehead and runs it through his short hair.

"Wolfe, your squad is on civilian duty, we found a bunch of the traitors, your job is making sure they don't see the light of day." Powell says.

"Sir?" He asks.

Powell slams his hand down on to the table. "Go to these goddamn coordinates." He says, my HUD flashes with a new objective marker. "Kill all of them." He says coldly, Wolfe nods and turns, walking between Taylor and I who are at his side.

We follow him out, he puts a hand up to the side of his helmet, talking on the radio. "We're doing some black ops bullshit for ONI, if you can't handle it, stay here." He says to us, we keep following him.

Wolfe keeps his hand to the side of his helmet for a second, a song starts to play across our radio network as we jog towards the objective, it starts with rock guitars and drums before the speaker sings.

I can't escape this hell...

So many times I've tried...

But I'm still caged inside...

Somebody help me through this nightmare!

I can't control myself!

So what if you can see?! The dark inside of me! No one will ever change this animal I have become!

The song continues as we line up on the side of a building. Wolfe motions for me to breach it, I step I front of the door, I fire my gun across the center of the wooden door, cutting it in half, I see a spray of blood and I hear screaming over the song, I kick the remainder of the door down.

I walk in, I unholster my magnum and I start firing at random, blood shooting up everywhere, I watch myself shoot all kinds of people, one bullet is a man, or a woman, another is a child, each bullet finds its mark.

Blood sprays onto my visor, but I keep shooting, reloading after my eight shots of magnum, eventually the building is clear, the cries of the wounded fill the air as the song ends.

"Captain, this is Wolfe, we did your dirty work." Wolfe spits into his radio.

"Copy that, you can return to base." He says cooly, logging out of our net.

"Got a song for this shit, Wolfe?" I ask him, he nods and stays silent before another song starts. A guitar plays a sad melody, the singer sings as if he's just lost all of his dearest friends.

Another day in this carnival of souls

Another night settles in as quickly as it goes

The memories of shadows, ink on the page

And I can't seem to find my way home

And it's almost like

Your heaven's trying everything

Your heaven's trying everything

To keep me out

All the places I've been and things I've seen

A million stories that made up a million shattered dreams

The faces of people I'll never see again

And I can't seem to find my way home

Cause it's almost like

Your heaven's trying everything to break me down

Cause it's almost like

Your heaven's trying everything to keep me out

The song continues like this as we stand around, looking at the civilians around us, only a few of them were armed, the one I killed at the door and another with an insurgent patch on his black beanie, now sticky with blood.

I feel sick.

Another day in the shit.

Authors note.

I feel like that is sufficient, a deja vu attack last ODST chapter, and a deja vu dream coming true this chapter, not like Hawkins has much of a choice... Considering I control him.

*Maniacal laughter*

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, review, favorite and follow for more!

Shroudedpanther: Thank you so much for your review! I will definitely use this for future chapters.

Thank you to anybody else for commenting on my work, I appreciate it!

Read on

-Rsk


	17. To Kill a Seraph

Chapter XVI: To Kill a Seraph

Outside of Rullins II and Rullins IV  
July 2nd, 2531 UNSC Calendar  
Chief Warrant Officer Third Class, Amanda Kile  
160th SOAR Longsword Division

Oryan and I are reassigned to the UNSC_ You'll Love our MAC_, another carrier in the Gypsy fleet, we were moved from Reach on to this ship along with our Longsword onboard the Prefect, which is now here.

"Welcome back to Rullins, Chief." Are the first words I hear when I wake up, I snap awake immediately and I stare at Oryan.

"Why're we back here? I thought the Covvies glasses this place." I say to him.

"Apparently they only pulled our fleet because of enemy reinforcements, there're still large sections of Rullins under attack." He says to me, I sigh and I get up, I am already dressed for action in case there is to be any.

"So, we're engaging on the ground again?" I ask, he nods and hands me his holo pad, it shows our Longsword, it explains the mission.

'Dear Chief Kile and Officer Oryan, you are now assigned under squad seven, otherwise known as "Mockingbird", you will go ground side and perform a series of strikes against enemy positions in order to secure safe evacuation for the rest of Rullins.' The briefing reads.

"Alrighty then." I say, putting my boots on, I grab my flight helmet from next to my bunk, I look up at Oryan. "Aren't you not supposed to be in here? This is a woman bunk room." I say to him suspiciously.

"Oh nononono, none of that, I just came in to wake you." He says, his face flushing red, I laugh as I stand and I follow him out, we walk to the hangar, down the hallways of the ship. When we reach the hangar, most of the pilots are already loading into their crafts, Oryan helps me into the cockpit as I climb the ladder into it after he does, stepping into the pilots seat and sitting down.

The Longsword hisses as its cockpit closes, sealing. Words flash on my HUD, I see the faces of Mockingbird squad, next to them my call sign flashes, Mock Me 1-3

I chuckle at the name, the squad leader doesn't have her helmet on, she looks pretty, pale blue eyes and blonde hair, other than a small scar on her left cheek her face has no marks.

I quickly strap my helmet under my chin, I run a quick systems check, I order Oryan to do the same.

"Mockingbird, sign in."

"1-2 signing in."

"1-3 signing in." I reply.

"2-1 signing in."

"2-2 ready to kick ass."

"2-3 here for rampage."

I put both of my hands over the control stick, waiting for the command to go.

"All Mockingbird call signs clear for launch." 1-1 says over radio. I power up my engines as the call goes out, the entire craft shakes, causing me to grin.

"Ready Oreo?" I ask, I see him give a thumbs up from behind me. Our Longsword flies out of the hangar, out into the vacuum of space.

Space is quiet, always has been, always will be. But the scary thing about space, with its darkness is that if you die in space, nobody will hear it or see it.

"Mockingbirds, we got a Seraph patrol at coordinates 107, 56 over?" I hear 1-2 say over the radio. Acknowledgment lights wink from the rest of the squad as we make our way towards 1-2.

"Oreo, 107 by 56 full throttle." I say to him, I see him nod out of the corner of my eye as we zoom off towards the location.

"1-3, break off current course and go to 108 by 45, over?" 1-1 orders through the radio.

"Copy that 1-1, 1-3 out." I reply. "Oryan, you hear that?" I ask the man. I see him nod as our Longsword switches courses on its autopilot.

The Rullins systems wasn't that bad compared to others, there weren't many asteroids floating around, and the sun almost has a kind of greenish tint, making a beautiful sight as we pass it. If only the Covenant hadn't come.

My radar beeps as 1-2 appears on it, the marker for 1-2 is followed by several Seraphs.

"1-3, help get these fuckers off my tail." 1-2 says in the radio, I look at him through my HUD, he looks scared out of his mind.

"Copy that, try to turn so I can get on their asses." I order through radio. I watch as 1-2's Longsword whips around, the two Seraphs on his tail follow. I easily maneuver myself directly behind the Seraphs.

I grip the control stick tightly. With my flight gloves on, I couldn't feel much but the shape of the control stick is definitely awkward to hold. I can feel the cold metal even through my gloves.

I bite my lower lip as my missiles lock on to the first Seraph, a rotating red square around the craft on my HUD. The square turns green, I apply pressure on the right side of the control stick where a small red button sits, two missiles fly out from the sides of my craft. The missiles slam into the back of the Seraph in front of me, causing it to spin, exploding as the pilot attempts to regain control.

I start locking on to the last Seraph, the craft fires a torpedo straight at 1-2, ripping off one of the Longsword's wings. The missiles beep as they lock on.

"Mock this, bitch." I mutter, pressing the button twice. The missiles fly out, the Seraph flies straight up in an attempt to avoid the rockets. One of two hit the Seraph, the other rocket falls short and explodes behind the craft.

The Seraph flips again, finding itself directly behind me. The craft fires several torpedoes towards us, but I quickly jerk right on the control stick, sending us spinning towards the right as I kick the inertia control button.

I hold down the trigger on the front of my control stick as we spin, bullets fly all around, tearing through the Seraph as my craft spins.

I jam the inertia button with my foot again, causing my craft to stabilize. "You good, Oreo?" I call out.

"Just fine.. I think I might throw up." He says, queasily.

"Oh get over it." I say to him. My Longsword flies off towards the rest of the squad.

My radar beeps again, three Seraphs coming in from behind. I maneuver myself to turn towards them, my missiles starting to lock on as they engage me with plasma torpedoes.

I move the control stick to the right quickly, the torpedoes fly straight past my Longsword, the square turns green. I tap the missile button, one flies out of the chamber towards the center Seraph, the pilot moves as the missile flies past it. The missile is about to come around when it explodes, having hit nothing, I stare at my HUD in confusion.

Three more torpedoes spin towards my ship, only one of them glances off the side of my ship, forcing me to hold my breath. I attempt to turn around, but one of the Seraphs speeds forward and blocks me off, I yank back the control stick, flying straight up, spinning while I do so.

"Hang on!" I call out to Oryan.

One of the Seraphs goes around to block me off again, but the last one tails me, exactly what I wanted. I tap the weapon switch option, selecting the five hundred kilo bomb, the only bomb on my fighter for space engagements with Corvettes, but it is time to test my luck with Physics.

I smash my hand against the button, continuing to go straight up, the bomb ejects out of my craft, spinning as the gears inside of my ship push it out of the chamber. The Seraph smashes straight into the bomb, causing a massive explosion, my Longsword shakes and starts to spin as most of my instruments shut down, causing my craft to spin out towards the planet.

"Ah shit, instruments are out Oreo, try to get them back up." I say to him, we are both trained in repairing a Longsword, several exercises in which we had to repair one mid flight, not nearly as disorientating as this is now, but it would help Oryan.

"Fuck, Mandy we're headed towards Rullins." Oryan says, I look out the window and notice that we are in fact moving towards the planet.

"Better hurry, then." I say to him, I hear cranking noises and curses as Oryan works.

My instruments turn on too late.

My Longsword enters the atmosphere of Rullins, luckily the ship itself is meant for entering and exiting atmosphere, so we didn't get roasted like a hog on a spit, but the fact we are falling too hard too fast is also a problem.

"Oryan, this 'Sword is not gonna make it." I say to him, he nods. I reach down under my chair and I retrieve the M7 SMG stored there. Our craft shakes as plasma starts flying around us. The last Seraph is back.

And it wants blood.

My systems flare red as plasma smashes into the hull, causing the craft to shake, we exit the lower atmosphere, land below us.

"Computer, off." I order, I take the control stick, I place my hands on a whole lot of buttons to my left that the computer usually controls.

"All power to weapons..." I mutter, I give one last flare of the engines, pointing us straight up at the Seraph, falling at the same time, but falling straight down, luckily. The Seraph is pointed straight down, making this the stare down of death.

I pull the trigger, bullets start flying towards the Seraph, pinging off of its fading shields as I unload into it. The craft tries pulling off, but it's shields flare and an explosion off its starboard signals engine failure, they are falling too, but they're falling faster.

"Oryan, hang on to your M7, fucking eject!" I call out, I hear the terrible sound of my cockpit opening, the rocket under my chair ignites and launches me out of my craft. I feel myself jerk as the parachute activates, pushing me from my chair, Oryan does the same as we float towards the ground.

I watch as the Seraph collides with our Longsword, creating a brilliant explosion of so many colors that I almost cover my eyes to look away.

"Mock me 1-3, come in 1-3, do you read, over?" I hear 1-1 ask.

"This is 1-3, ejected and safe.. For now, we're parachuting towards the ground. Can you track our coordinates?" I ask.

"1-3, you've got a major problem." 1-1 replies, I raise my eyebrows. "You are dropping straight behind enemy lines, the closest unit to you is around seven kilometers from your current location." 1-1 says to us, I silently curse, this is where I die.

The ground gets closer and closer as time wears on, I look down at my belt. Luckily, my M7 is still clipped to my front, at least we aren't totally defenseless. In pilot training, we were taught to operate shotguns and SMG's, considering a pilot shot down has a one percent chance of survival behind enemy lines. We either prove that wrong, or die where our bodies won't be found. MIA for life.

We hit the ground, my legs complain as I roll out of my parachute. I un clip my SMG from my front and I aim around our drop zone.

Oryan walks behind me. "I grabbed all of the ammo we had stored there, four mags for each of us." He says, handing me my share.

I flick the safety on my M7 off, I continue scanning around. Another part of pilot training was how to be a soldier, everyone goes through bootcamp, doesn't matter what they do.

Oryan steps forward and I follow his lead, we start to walk through the open field we had landed on, towards the forest to our north, which happens to be the direction the closest friendly forces are.

I take off my helmet and I let my hair flow freely, I magnetically attach my helmet to my side. Oryan and I walk for around ten minutes before we find enemy contact.

The alien patrol in front of us is patrolling the forest, ten grunts and four Elites, two minors, an ultra, and a major. All of them ready to kill, other than the Grunts, who just look really tired and bored.

"Mandy, we hit the major and ultra first, then move on to the rest, I doubt they have shields up." Oryan mutters to me, we sit in a bush, overlooking the path the Covvies are patrolling. I nod and we get ready, pointing our M7's down towards them.

Oryan and I open up at the same time, our bullets ping off of the Major's shields, causing the entire patrol to open fire on us.

We scramble back, finding different cover as the enemy runs through the bush we were just in to find us. I spray more towards the Grunts now, only taking out one of them before having to reload. I move again, finding a wide tree as cover. Oryan runs to find new cover and sprays towards the minor, the Elite's shields flicker and die as Oryan runs out of bullets.

The minor responds, firing a plasma bolt into Oryan's chest, causing my faithful co pilot to fall over, unmoving.

"Oryan!" I scream, I twirl around my cover, spraying every last bullet into the minor, finally taking it down. The major fires at me, prompting me to switch covers again. A Grunt finds me quickly, walking right up into my face, I smash the glass part of its gas mask with the butt of my rifle, causing the little creature to fall over, gasping for its air.

Blue and green plasma start flying around me as the aliens suppress my position, they stop for a moment. I run for a rock, sliding as I get close to it. The barrage of plasma starts again, making me wish I had a frag grenade.

I pop up as soon as the plasma stops again, I pepper the ultra with bullets, luckily the aliens shields hadn't fully recharged just yet, causing a couple of SMG rounds to penetrate its armor. The creature roars and I duck down again to reload, thunderous footsteps pound towards me, the sound of an energy sword activating forces me to pop out of cover as green plasma flies around me, I feel a burn on my arm but I ignore it, I have bigger problems.

The ultra approaches, I continue to pepper the large alien with bullets as it steps towards me, ready to strike with its energy sword.

The alien gets to me and shoves me back, bleeding from several holes in its chest. I fall and I reload quickly, tossing the empty magazine away. I spray at him as he walks towards me, raising his energy sword. The alien falls, right on top of me, it's energy sword impaling the ground on both sides of my neck, literally allowing me to look death in the eye before it turns off, falling next to me.

That's when I decide to play dead, I sit there, unmoving while a Grunt, or what I assume is a Grunt pokes me with its plasma weapon, it let's out a call before moving on, I hear footsteps all around me as the patrol moves on. Relief washes over me when they leave, I use all of my strength to shove the ultra off of me, leaving it there. I grab its plasma rifle, holding it awkwardly in an attempt to find out where the trigger is.

"Fuck it." I mutter, throwing the dumb weapon away, I jog over to Oryan, kneeling down next to him. "Oryan, can you hear me?" I ask softly. He groans in response allowing me more relief. I flip him on to his back to check for his wound.

His pilot armor has a hole in it, unfortunately he didn't have the leisure of his armor being taken off when he was hit, and therefore hot metal had poured on to his wound, starting to harden.

I reach through the hole in his armor, scraping at the metal with my gloves on, of course. The molten metal freezes on to my gloves, making random metal segments all over, but at least it was out of Oryan. I pull off my leg armor, I quickly tear off my pant leg, up to my knee, I pour water from my emergency supply on to it, pressing it on to the wound to hopefully help.

"Thanks Mandy." He says to me, I keep pressing the pant leg on to his wound, but I take his hand with my free hand and I squeeze his reassuringly.

I throw the pant leg away and I help him stand, we start moving towards the HUD marker again, I put on my helmet frequently to check if we're going in the right direction. We move at a slow pace, considering the wound on my arm I had literally forgotten about and Oryan's chest wound.

The sun sets as the time flicks to night, Oryan and I continue walking. Our throats start to burn from dehydration, hunger and exhaustion sets in quickly. But yet we keep walking, knowing it will be the one thing that saves our lives.

"Mock Me 1-3, this is 1-1, come in, over?" I hear from my helmet. I quickly put it on and I reply.

"This is 1-3, send traffic." I reply.

"Oh thank god you're still alive, we made it back to You'll Love our MAC, how're things ground side?" He asks.

"Oryan and I are both wounded and we've been walking all day running on no sleep and little food and water." I simply state.

"Well shit.. I talked to the Cap' earlier, said he'd see what he can do, but he needs your coordinates, which would require you sitting still for a little while." He explains to me.

I sigh and I stop walking. I sit down next to a tree, putting my back against it to help support me. "108 by 334." I answer. Oryan sits next to me, we wait for a little while before falling asleep, Oryan volunteers to take watch while I drift off, which he does.

I wake up a few minutes later as the trees around us start snapping as something hits them, shaking the ground. I curl up into a ball, my eyes clamped closed as the shaking continues, and then stops.

I hear a screeching noise, much like metal on metal.. Actually it is metal on metal. Several figures appear around Oryan and I, all armed to the teeth, their faces not visible behind polarized visors.

The figures aim at us, one of them cautiously steps forward, kneeling down next to the both of us. "Chief Kile and WO Oryan?" He asks.

Oryan and I nod at him, but he continues to question us.

"Flash." He says.

"Thunder." I reply.

"ID?" He asks me.

"770452." I answer, he nods.

"And this is your copilot?" He asks.

"Yes, he's wounded and needs medical attention." I explain to the man.

Another figure approaches, no longer aiming at us. He kneels down next to Oryan and starts to patch him up, pouring bio foam on to his burn to help heal it.

"We've got a helluva run ahead of us, five kilometers is it?" The man asks, I nod.

"We should get moving then, won't be long until the Covvies find us." He says to me, offering his hand to help me stand. I take it and he helps me up.

"What's your name?" I ask.

"Dieter, 7th ODST Division." He says to me, I nod. The medic helps Oryan to his feet.

"Alright let's-." Dieter starts, another sound of a drop pod hitting the ground thunders throughout the forest.

All of the ODST's aim their weapons towards the sound. The drop pod is larger than the one man SOEIV's, and purple, which is never a good sign these days.

The door flies off, the ODST's hold their fire to see what comes out, but nothing ever does. They look around, confused, Dieter jogs forward, he lines up next to the door and spins around, aiming his gun inside.

"Nothing in here but supplies, must be a drop." He yells over to us, relief washes over me.

"Oh fuck!" I hear someone cry after an all familiar sound echoes through the forest. I spin around, I un clip my M7 from my belt and I aim towards the voice, that's when I see Oryan, suspended in the air with an energy sword through his chest. His face remains in the startled expression as I open fire on the Elite behind him, the alien un cloaks, but so does the rest of his friends.

All of the ODST's seem to react at once, finding their own targets to open up on, I watch Dieter smash into a tree, he rolls as an Elite stabs at him with its energy sword. Dieter fires several shots out of his SOCOM magnum, causing the alien to stumble back.

The medic from before seems to be having no trouble, a machete in one hand and a giant combat knife in the other. He spins and slashes at the alien in front of him, going head to head with the foreign swordsman.

I send occasional bursts towards any Elite I can, or any Elite that tries to get close to me. Dieter smashes the butt of his SOCOM into an Elite, causing the alien to fall over, one of its mandibles cracks and falls off, causing it to roar in pain. Dieter ends its life with a shot to the head.

"C'mon, we gotta go!" Dieter calls out to the rest of his squad.

"Get the pilot to the fucking bird, we can handle these assholes!" A rough voice replies.

I feel a hand on my arm pull me away from the fray, all of a sudden I am running through the trees, leaves and branches whipping at my unprotected face, my helmet remains at my side. At this point, I couldn't care less.

The monstrous sound of engines fills the air as a Pelican flies over us, forcing the trees to dance as wind is blown on to them.

The a Pelican lands in front of us, I jog into the back, Dieter follows. He looks out the back, searching for something. All of the ODSTs walk out of the woods into the clearing, they step on to the Pelican, sitting down and strapping into their seats.

We lift off, plasma AA rocks the bird every so often, but it doesn't matter as we fly out of the planets atmosphere, back to our ship, and the supposed safety it offers.

But all I can think about is Oryan, what I could've done differently to maybe save him. But now he's gone, and with no body to bring home, his family will hate me.

Ain't that just fucking perfect?

_  
Authors note

Hey guys! I would like to kick this off with a thank you for reading this chapter of The Sins of our Choices, this has been a Pilot chapter, but an interesting one in my opinion considering I killed off like, the MAIN male character. Anyway, I apologize for not uploading last week, a lot of things were going on and I could not find the time of inspiration to write this chapter.

*shrugs*

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, keep reviewing, keep putting smiles on my face, I will see you all... Next time!

Read on  
-Rsk


	18. River of Blood

Chapter XVII: River of Blood

Earth, Sol System

July 27th, 2531 UNSC Calendar

Private First Class Garret Uroh

Operation TREBUCHET FoxFire Squad

Earth always had a terrorist problem, but never bad enough to take on entire countries. The only exception to this was the Attack of Berlin, but KSK were deployed and quickly eradicated the threat with some casualties.

Even five hundred years ago, they had problems with the old Middle East, now referred to as The Arabian Republic which hasn't had problems in years, but now they start again.

During our first briefing with our new squad leader, Gunnery Sergeant Shepherd Tucker he explained to us that the Galician Freedom Forces attacked the city of Baghdad and Fallujah, now that they have captured both sectors, they are moving on to smaller towns and killing anybody in their way.

Tucker was the only replacement, it is just me, Anders, Jamele, and Knopp. We sit in a small building in Baghdad, which is one of those old cities that doesn't believe in technology, all of the buildings around here are either hotels or sand huts.

I toy with my BR55, Jamele watches me for a moment. She raises her eyebrows at me in confusion, I stop for a moment and meet her gaze.

"Whatsup?" She asks me.

"Just thinking." I explain, I flick the safety on and off.

"About..?" She asks, taking off her helmet and sitting next to me.

"Khannon." I answer, she just nods and remains silent. We have all been thinking of our former leader.

"At least he killed an alien before he went out, maybe two of three aliens now that I think of it." She replies

I just nod again, I stare at the doorway as if she wasn't even next to me.

"Y'know, you could pay more attention to me." Jamele complains.

I laugh and I look at her, my helmet still polarized. I had been making a habit of leaving my helmet on as of late. It just seemed natural to constantly wear my helmet.

She reaches over and takes my helmet off. "There, now I can see if you're still awake." She says to me.

I look her in the eye awkwardly, mostly because her bright blue eyes made me feel like she was looking into my soul or some shit. It sounds superstitious as fuck, but she really does have that kind've stare.

"Uroh, you shouldn't worry about Khannon, he's in a better place and you need to move on, think about other things." She says to me, softly.

"What should I think about, then?" I ask her, exasperated.

"I dunno, your family, me and the rest of the squad, anything." She replies.

I nod. "Sounds good, I have to think about you whenever Khannon pops into my mind." I say, sarcastically.

She flushes bright red. "That's not what I meant, asshole." She says to me, lightly punching my arm, which hurts considering our augmentation.

Tucker walks into the room, looking at the two of us. "Get ready, we're moving out in five." He says before turning and walking out.

I grab my helmet and I put it on to my head. I look at Jamele and she does the same. We walk out toting our weapons, we meet the rest of the team in the common room of the hut, where Tucker is ready to brief us.

"So, we have on our hands, a large problem." He starts, looking at us. "A terrorist group from around five hundred years ago has been hiding around this area, and now they've joined the Free Eridanus Organization." He says, we all nod. "This puts them back on our radar, and it's our time to eradicate these fuckers before they can speak the name Allah." He says to us, we all respond with a strong 'Oorah'. Tucker grins.

"Let's get going, then." He says, starting to walk out. "The objective is a construction site around a mile from here." He calls back to us, starting a steady jog towards what I assume is the construction site.

Every once in awhile, a bird would fly fast above us, making a sound that reminds me of a rocket launcher. I flinch the first couple of times I hear it, but I eventually just ignore the dumb bird.

The construction site is in view, Tucker checks on us on the radio every so often, but we all just respond with 'I'm fine' and 'It's fucking hot' as our statements.

"Now that we've made it here, the plan is for us to distract a whole lotta Hodgies and hope the rest of TREBUCHET can get to their caves in time." Tucker tell us. I visually gulp, our glorious new squad leader has signed us up to become cannon fodder.

We get into the construction site, it has three floors. Anders sticks on the bottom staircase, the only staircase with a M45D Tactical Shotgun aimed down the hall. Jamele and Knopp stick on the second floor, Knopp has a sniper rifle while Jamele has a M7 SMG, also spotting for Knopp. Meanwhile, Tucker and I sit on the roof, I carry my BR55 and he has a MA5B.

"So how exactly are we gonna draw them here?" I ask him. Tucker raises his index finger, then his middle, and finally his ring finger, three building in front of us explode, sending rocks and shrapnel everywhere.

"By the way, they really hate it when we wreck their shit." Tucker says to me, clapping me on the back before jogging to the other side of the construction site.

I sigh and I prepare myself for the worst, getting ready for anything possible was always good for facing an enemy you know jack shit about.

Several men ran around some of the rubble, only one of them is unarmed. The rest hold MA5B rifles, civilian issue by still deadly. They spray off a couple of rounds towards Tucker that forces the man to duck down. I pop out of cover and I send a burst flying into one of them, causing the man to collapse.

Now that I get a better look at them, some of them wear old Kevlar vests and turbans, along with traditional wear. They hold their MA5B's as if their lives depended on it.

The unarmed man runs into the construction site, gunfire erupts from the bottom and I know that Anders has probably shot him. An explosion rocks the construction site, Anders cries out.

"Anders, what happened?!" Tucker yells through the radio.

"These fuckers have explosive vests!" Anders yells back, another shot from his M45D cracks through the air.

"Are you hit?" Tucker asks.

"No, but a chunk of rock fell on me, I can't fucking move." He says, panic lacing his voice.

"Uroh, go get him." Tucker says to me, I nod and I stand, running down the stairs. I find Anders at the bottom, the lower half of his body under concrete from the construction site, I throw the rubble off of him. One of the terrorists runs around the corner, warranting a bitch slap from me, I can feel his bones breaking under my titanium A glove. He flies back, into one of his friends who explodes on impact.

Shrapnel flies my way, I use my arm to cover my face as it flies towards me. I feel something smash into my arm, but I ignore the pain for now. I help Anders stand and I lean him against a post on the staircase, in perfect view of the door.

I hand him my BR55 and some magazines, I grab his M45D and all of the shells he has before setting up at the door to the stairway.

"Frag out!" I hear Knopp yell on the radio.

More enemies start to swarm in, I fire and pump, fire then pump, over and over until my shotgun clicks. In front of me lies the bodies of some men, others are still alive, struggling to grab their weapons.

I reload my shotgun and I walk among the bodies, finishing off several enemies before someone tackles me from my right side, slamming me into the concrete wall next to me.

The Innie pins me down, I look up at him and he has ice blue eyes, around 6'7, a military haircut and some blood dripping from his sleeve. The man wears no armor. He slams a fist down on to my visor, my eyes widen when a loud crack resonates through the air.

My visor has spiderwebs of glass starting to form, he gets ready to bring his fist down again but this time I stop him, grabbing his hand and trying to push him off of me.

I shove him off and I stand, he seems surprised by my strength but he just charges me again. I punch him directly in the face, the man barely flinches, punching me again in the visor. Glass shatters, luckily not into my eyes but all over my face.

I cry out and I throw my helmet off at him, one of the jagged pieces of glass cut his cheek, but it doesn't compare to what had happened to me. Blood drips into my eyes and down my face, eventually meeting the other streams of blood at my neck.

He rushes forward and bitch slaps me, I fly towards the staircase, flipping around so that I don't land on my head, my boots screech as they slide along the floor.

A pistol shot rings out, but I don't feel any pain, I look down and I see a bullet hole through Anders' helmet. I look up at the Innie who holds a smoking magnum, he throws it away and smiles at me. He fucking smiles at me.

I let loose a battle cry, charging straight towards him. I smash my fist into his jaw, he stumbles back, a tooth falls out of his mouth on to the floor. He smiles at me again and charges, his mouth now dripping blood down on to his oversized chin. Did I mention this guy is fucking huge?

We go into an all out brawl, I try to use my titanium armor to my advantage, but this guy is literally a fucking beast. Finally I fly backwards, back to Anders' who still lies dead next to the staircase. Everything in my body hurts, blood drips from every place imaginable on my face and I am personally exhausted.

The large man starts walking towards me, he picks up his magnum and points it at me, firing two rounds. One of the rounds flies right above my head, the other between my legs. He then fires again, I cry out as the bullet punches through my armor into my chest, I start to cough blood, clutching the wound.

He finally steps up to me, stepping on my leg. I feel my leg get crushed and I cry out again, my hand reaching for the BR55 I had given Anders. The man shoots my arm which stops me dead in my tracks, forcing me to give up.

"Now, you'll answer question." The man says in a thick Russian accent, his magnum is pressed against my skull.

"What are you?" He asks me.

"The friend of a bitch." I hear a voice reply, a magnum shot rings out, and then another, soon twelve shots are put straight into the Russian's chest, causing him to fall over, dead.

I hear someone jump the staircase and pretty soon Jamele is dragging me upstairs, a trail of blood marking our path.

"C'mon Uroh you're not dying.." She says, mostly to herself.

I cough in response, I feel a little bit of blood spill from my lip, dripping down on to the bottom of my face. She gets me upstairs, Knopp rushes over and covers the stairs, pointing her MA37 down the flight of stairs in order to prevent contact from rushing upstairs.

Jamele pulls my chest piece off, starting to pour bio foam into the wounds. I cry out in pain as the major stinging sensation enters my wounds, causing little needle pricks to poke around my wounds.

The bio foam turns pink as it solidifies, Jamele puts my chest piece back on and drags me over to the stairs, handing me my BR55.

"Watch the stairs, Uroh." She says to me, I nod and I aim downstairs, an enemy comes around the corner and gets a burst to the head for his troubles.

"FoxFire, this is WireWolf, we heard you might need some assistance?" I hear over the radio.

"Yeah, it'd be nice." Tucker replies.

"Well.. Here it is." WireWolf replies, literally fourteen giant explosions rock the construction site, outside all fourteen explosions are centered within the mountain to our west.

Everyone seems to freeze, I watch several enemies drop their weapons, I hear more clanking of metal on concrete as the insurgents downstairs drop their own rifles.

I stand up and I grab my magnum, magnetically attaching my BR55 to my back while I am at it. I walk downstairs, my wounds reminding me not to walk too fast or put too much wait on my body.

I grab a pair of zip ties from my belt and I start zip tying terrorists, eventually I run out of zip ties. Three terrorists remain, the rest are on the ground in cuffs. One of the terrorists is a giant like the one I faced earlier.

I blast two of them in the head with my magnum but I shoot the big one twice in the gut. Black blood pours from his wound, he falls down face first. He is bald so I have a clear view on what is on the back of his head.

There is a barcode, the numbers 801 and then 'Immortal' in black ink.

The man is still alive, just in heavy pain so I kneel down and I poke him with my magnum.

"You're an Immortal?" I ask him, he nods. "What does that mean?" He coughs blood, I know I don't have much time so I grab a picture of his head using my helmet camera just in case.

"Opposite... Spartan." He coughs out before dying.

"I need a smart AI." I say over comm.

"Higgins at your service." A voice in my helmet replies.

"What are Immortals?" I ask him.

"Either a Persian Warrior or a God." He replies.

"History document on Persian Immortals." I request.

"Persian Immortals, the Persian warriors of early BC fought against the Athenians and the Spartans in the Persian wars." The AI replies.

"Higgins, get me the highest ONI authority you can talk to." I tell him, my comm clicks.

"This'd better be good, Private." A voice says.

"Sir, this is Private First Class Uroh of TREBUCHET FoxFire, we met contact with Innies called 'Immortals', they show similar abilities to that of a Spartan." I tell him, he thinks for a moment.

"Evidence?" He asks.

"Sir, access my helmet camera footage from twenty minutes ago." I tell him.

A few minutes later he replies. "Well, shit."

"What do we do, sir?" I ask.

"Nothing, I'll get some Recon on these fuckers." He says to me before switching off comm.

"Uroh, we're moving out of here!" Tucker yells from behind me, we jog out of the construction site, running towards the edge of town.

"Sir, what happened?" I ask over comm.

"We lost contact with WireWolf." Tucker answers. "Last location is ahead of us."

We run through the sand, eventually finding a river bank, but something is wrong. Three bodies sit in front of the river, headless. Their blood leaking into the water.

"There was four-" Tucker stops dead in his tracks.

A body is in the middle of the river, supported by a cross, the heads of the other soldiers around it. Blood covers the cross in words.

"Forever Immortal we rise." Tucker repeats, visibly gulping, the river turns red around us as the bodies fill it with blood.

"These fuckers mean business." I mutter to Jamele, she just nods to me.

I hear a crunching sound and I turn, Knopp falls into the river, two large men stand over her. One of them steps towards Jamele and I, the other starts to draw a machete, raising it above his head. I decide not to focus on Knopp. The man approaches us, he wears a weird version of the SPARTAN armor, painted orange with no shielding from the looks. He bitch slaps Jamele into the river, and then steps towards me. We lock ourselves in hand to hand combat, a gun shot rings out and the man standing above Knopp drops his machete, Knopp grabs it and uses her strength to stab it straight through the armor, killing the man.

I feel myself fly backwards, awkwardly rolling to get back on my feet. The Immortal approaches, withdrawing a magnum from his side and pointing it at me.

I lunge forward and I grab his hand, he pulls the trigger and shoots the still standing body of his friend, causing the body to fall over. We wrestle for the magnum, I knock it away and he rips the helmet from my head, throwing it to the sand to our right.

He gets ready to punch me in the face but I put a fist through his visor, causing glass to shatter into his eyes. He screams in pain, blood dribbling down his face. I punch through the open hole in his visor over and over, each punch drawing more blood. I finally fall back and I grab his magnum, standing and blasting him through the broken visor.

Everything goes quiet, Knopp steps next to me and looks at my armored gloves. "Uroh, you're bleeding." She says to me, I raise my hand in front of my face, blood drips on to the sand, little shards of glass stuck in it.

"I'll be fine." I tell her, turning towards the river of blood.

The river of blood.

Running under my feet.

Sounds good, let's get started.

Authors note

So I was sitting there thinking to myself.. What if the Insurrection found a way to make a SPARTAN, but of course they wouldn't call it that. So I looked up Persian Warrior names considering the Spartans and the Persians fought during the Persian War.. Maybe later on I'll make a 300 Spartan reference but that'll be later on considering right now there are about 30 Spartan..? Is that right? I hope so.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I hope you like my idea of the Persian Immortals, I felt like I cannot honestly just stick to canon for it to be fanfiction. Continue to review, favorite, follow, and share with your friends, or make some kind of community for me to put things on considering I'm useless with HTML. If I don't upload next week, it is because I am very ill

Read on

-Rsk


	19. Jets in, Jets out

Chapter XVIII: Jets in, Jets out.

Fortier VI, Ghety system

October 30th, 2531 UNSC Calendar

Sergeant Andrew Wood

173rd Army Airborne Rangers

"Got it, Sergeant?" Is the first thing I hear after zoning out, I look up at Jane and I just nod.

"So you know about your squad being replenished." She tells me, I nod again.

"Right, I'll get them ready for jump jet training." She tells me. I nod to her as she walks out, and I continue to do what I was doing before; writing letters.

This job was especially fun considering I had to write about the poor man I had shoved away from my squad after a grenade stuck to him, and I have to tell the whole truth about how he died.

'Dear the parents and loved ones of Specialist Quinn, I regret to inform you that your son has fallen in combat, due to direct contact with a plasma grenade. I also regret to inform you that as an attempt to save the rest of the squad, I pushed Specialist Quinn off the line. You have my deepest condolences.' Doesn't that sound fucked?

I groan and I continue writing, sending the letters the second I finish them, even receiving replies at some times. Isn't that great?

I give up writing and I stand up, walking over to the door. It opens automatically as I step in front of it and I step inside. The new Rangers sit around, tying their boots or arm wrestling, I find it hard to believe this was me a few months ago. Enlisted and proud.

"Rangers!" I call out, everyone in the room jumps to their feet.

"Welcome to Fortier IV! This lovely planet is as close to the Outer Colonies as we can get without running into Innies of Covenant and it is a beautiful planet, Hooah?"

"Hooah Sergeant!" Their voices ring out.

"One of the special things about Fortier IV are the mountain systems, biggest we've found in this galaxy." I explain. "Which is why you are being trained in the UNSC Army Standard issue Jet Pack or just jet pack." I tell them, half of them look terrified while the other half looks as if they wanna grab a jet and go.

"Get your gear on, we move out in five mikes." I tell them, briskly turning around and marching back into my office/room where I sleep and I get my battle gear ready.

I hesitantly hover my hand over a BR55, scratches and burns litter this thing and I understand why. All of my squad leaders had used this thing, and now it was passed down to me.

My hand awkwardly wraps around the top of the weapon, just a few centimeters away from the scope. I lift it off of the rack and I magnetically attach it to my back, it clicks into place as it sets into my armor.

I put on my CH427 full-faced Ranger helmet, the visor polarizing and my HUD activating as soon as the helmet locks into my chest plate.

Finally, I grab an M6G off the rack, attaching it to my left side magnetically as I am left handed and I might need it.

I step out and I see everyone ready, I motion for them to follow me and they do so as I walk into the armory.

"Grab your standard issue fire arms and jet pack." I order, they can out and start picking up weapons to use, grabbing plenty of magazines. I personally grab a jet pack, several grenades and as many magazines as my webbing can hold, just in case of anything happening and to also simulate combat weight.

I start the march out of the barracks, out to the front of the base where I have them line up. They check each other's jet pack and make sure everything else is in check as well.

Jane checks my jet pack and I check hers, trying to be as thorough as possible.

"Alright, now we start the climb." I tell them, I start to jog towards the mountain region, they all follow.

We start the climb with decent speed, moving up past jagged rocks and mudslides which quickly turned into ragged ice and avalanches.

Even with environmental controls, it was fucking cold on the side of that mountain, and we are only half way up. I watch someone step on a rock and slip, the man behind him grabs his arm as he falls, keeping him with the team.

"Fuck.. Thanks." The clumsy one says over comm.

It continues to get colder as we start to reach the point I want to get to, when we get there, the men obviously recognize what exactly I have planned to do.

In front of me is a cliff, leading all the way to the bottom of the mountain, I stand next to it with my arms crossed.

"Who's got the balls to go first?" I ask them. Nobody moves.

"I'll go." Someone says from the crowd of Rangers, he steps forward and I recognize him, the Ranger that had fallen before.

He steps up to me and I motion him forward.

"Is your jet pack functioning?" I ask him, he nods.

"First lesson boys, recovering from shock to use your jet pack." I say over comm. I shove the Ranger off the cliff, he let's out a cry of surprise as his feet leave solid ground.

But then he's letting out whoops and hollers over comm, I look over the cliff to see him going faster towards the bottom, his jet pack glowing as he does so.

"Next?" I ask. One by one, all of the Rangers but me and Jane are off the cliff, spiraling towards the bottom of the mountain.

"Ready J?" I ask her, she nods and dives off, activating her jet pack and flying straight down.

"That's everyone.. Right." I say to myself, I look over my shoulder at my jet pack and I mentally check it. I look back at the cliff, closing my eyes, I jump.

Even through my helmet I can mentally feel the wind ripping at my face as I fall, I put my hands by my sides and I grab the jet pack controller, I start falling faster as my body becomes a straight line. I squeeze the trigger of the jet pack and I start going faster towards the bottom, I start to spin before I put my ass before everything else and I start to slow down. My boots hit the ground and I look around and my Rangers, all of them look perfectly fine.

"So everyone made it?" I ask them

"Wait, people have died on this exercise?" One Ranger asks, confused.

"Yes, Rangers that were dumbasses and forgot how to use the most important equipment available to them." I tell him. "Step forward." He moves forward in front of the crowd. "Anymore questions before I give you a dumbass nickname for asking that question?" The Ranger shakes his head. "Name and rank."

"Private Danny Brown, Sergeant." He replies.

"No longer are you Private Brown you're just gonna be Private Brownie, simply because I cannot think of a more dishonorable name." I say to him, the Rangers behind him try to stifle their laughs.

"Yes Sergeant." Brownie says, stepping back.

We start walking back to base, still toting our weapons and ammunition. Every so often I would yell out 'Contact' and everyone would hit the ground, looking around for the contact, I fixed their positions and their field of fire accordingly.

We eventually make it back to base, the men load up TTR rounds into their rifles and step out of the armory, lining up and waiting for my orders.

"Men, all of you will get into squads and mark yourselves as.. Alpha red, Bravo blue, and Charlie is green, you will then find a place in our esteemed paintball arena and shoot each other for my entertainment, a after I give the order, of course." I order, they all look excited as their visors polarize. They run into the paintball arena while Jane and I head up to the viewing area.

In Alpha squad is Brownie, Gharoff, Serin, and Joffrey. Bravo has Keel, Donavan, Taroff, and Juli. And finally, Charlie squad has Derin, Cullins, Jut, and Arin.

I log on to the intercom through my helmet and I start to speak. "Rangers, you will now begin shooting each other for my entertainment."

The squads move out, going cover to cover. A shot from an MA37 rings out as Arin fires in Brownie's direction, sending the stun paint all around Brownie. However, Serin runs around the corner where Brownie is, putting a TTR round straight into Arin's helmet. The soldier crumples as Cullin grabs him by the shoulder plate, dragging him into cover.

Cries of panic erupt from Alpha as Bravo flanks them, Juli and Taroff engage Brownie and Serin while Donovan tosses a grenade at the remaining members of Alpha. Keel provides covering fire on Charlie with his M247L.

Once Alpha is taken care of, Keel has to reload and grabs one TTR round to the head from Charlie squad, who begins killing off Bravo. Three members remain in Charlie while only one remains in Bravo.

Donavan is the last member of Bravo, he runs behind cover as Jut and Cullins pin him down, Derin moves around the side to flank Donavan.

As Derin gets ready to fire upon Donavan, the remaining Ranger puts a round into his chest and then pops out of cover, throwing a grenade straight into Jut's helmet. The grenade pops as TTR splashes both Rangers from Charlie, ending the game.

Donavan looks around for a second before dropping his weapon and cheering, Bravo groggily runs out to meet him, their armor covered in dried TTR.

I make my way down into the room, I clap Donavan on the shoulder and grin at him from behind my helmet, the visor now depolarized.

"Alright Rangers, get some rest." I order, they all run off to the barracks to scrape the TTR from their armor off and then go to bed.

"Legion company come in." I hear over the radio.

"This is Legion Actual, good copy." I respond.

"Legion, we've got slipspace ruptures detected on the outskirts of your system, the Eridanus Offensive Fleet is coming to assist, but they won't be here for about two days. There are other friendly assets on the planet including Militia and other Ranger companies that are fresh out of bootcamp." The radio operator responds.

"Eridanus Offensive Fleet? How many ruptures." I ask.

"Over thirty."

"Shit." I say, logging off the radio.

Jane looks at me and raises her eyebrows at me.

"Thirty Covenant ships are making their way here.. Give the men time to rest, but keep them battle ready." I say to her, she nods and runs off towards the barracks.

I look out to the paintball field and I sigh, my helmet polarizing. Back into the fray.

Author's note

I would like to apologize for not uploading, but a new idea occurred to be so I got some permission from some very special people to write about characters they have made for RP.

So unless there is a revolution about what I'm about to do, we'll be doing it. I'm using Anson Hawkins as the main character, OCCASIONALLY I will switch to Rangers or Marines but I will mainly stick with ODST's to introduce Hotel team, all of which are made up by characters of people I know and I have gotten permission to use, so that's what we'll do. Look out for the future!

Read on

-Rsk


	20. So it Begins

Chapter XIX: So it Begins

Arcadia, Procyn system

February 9th, 2531 UNSC Calendar

Private Anson Hawkins

ODST Squad: Hotel

Demotion. That's the punishment for my treason against civilians. Luckily I did not end up like Drex and Powell who faced immediate execution. Wolfe was court marshaled and Taylor ran off. But me, faithfully as always followed my orders and got aboard the UNSC _Spirit of Fire,_ the ship now hovering over Arcadia.

Four Covenant ships sit on the opposite end of the system, readying their weapons while I step into the ODST drop bay. Hotel team sits in there.

First we have Private First Class Chorei, extreme joker by standards but deadly in CQB. Then we have Private Volker who walks in next to me, both of is new arrivals. Our squad leader, Gunnery Sergeant Thwaite sits on a couch, twirling his knife. The other members of Hotel refer to him as Blue Swede because of how often he songs the song Hooked on a Feeling, a song I had never heard of until now.

Our fire team leader is Corporal McCal, an Irishman with a sniper rifle. Private First Class Riley stands at the weapons table, starting to reassemble his M7 while the two other new arrivals step in, both women. Private Cairns and Reid.

"Fresh meat!" Riley calls out over to us, I look at him and grin from behind my visor while Thwaite stands up, walking over to us.

"Sorry to make introductions short, but we have a colony under attack so get geared up if you aren't already." He tells us. "You all have an MOS, right?" We all nod, walking over to the weapons rack and quickly grabbing our gear.

I personally grab a M732 SAW and some more armor plating to hold additional magazines for the huge gun. I grab a rucksack which I fill with more magazines and energy bars, along with my canteen full of water. I attach it to my back and I turn, watching Volker grab an M41 SPANKr from the table, loading in a couple of rockets before grabbing an M7 and attaching it to his side.

Reid grabs an M45D Tactical Shotgun from the weapon rack and points it towards the ceiling, pumping it to check for any remaining rounds. She starts loading in rounds, she then grabs a SOCOM pistol and attaches it to her side, she tops it off with an M7 SMG on her belt.

I also make sure to grab a SOCOM and a holster for it, I attach the holster to my side and I slip my SOCOM into it. I make sure to grab plenty of ammunition for both my SOCOM and my SMG.

I watch Cairns grab an MA5D, an M7 and a SOCOM magnum, packing plenty of ammunition for each, she then reaches into the bin that contains flash bangs and grenades, I follow her lead on that, attaching the explosives to my webbing.

"Call signs, everyone else here knows theirs other than the new guys, Hawkins, 1-6, Cairns, 1-7, Volker, 1-8 and finally Reid is 1-9, any questions?" Thwaite asks, we all shake our heads.

"Good, head to the ready room." He orders, we start walking across the hall into the ready room where a briefing table and our pods wait for us.

I lean on to the briefing table, an AI appears and looks at me, skeptically.

"Do you mind?" She asks, I stop leaning on the table.

The rest of Hotel walks in, the AI greets them and begins the briefing.

"As all of you know, Arcadia is under attack, two CCS Battlecruisers along with two CPV Heavy Destroyers have just started deploying troops to major cities, the UNSC _Texas_ and the UNSC _Pillar of Autumn_ are already engaging, the Arcadian defense fleet is also moving into place to attack." She says to us, we all nod. "Most of the _Spirit of Fire's_ crew has already deployed ground side, but we have a problem, Professor Ellen Anders has been kidnapped by the Covenant, she is currently attempting to escape by hiding in the ONI tower in the city of Avalon." The AI informs us. "Your mission is to deploy and save her, her research is invaluable to the UNSC." She then disappears, a drop sequence appears over the table, giving us thirty seconds to hop into the pods marked with our call signs.

"Alright boys, don't fuck up and we'll be home before night sets in." Thwaite says to us, I nod to myself, looking through the glass panel in front of me.

I look to my right, all of my weapons other than my SOCOM and knives are hooked into the seat, I feel the pod start to lurch.

My stomach lurches as we leave the gravity of the ship, my pod starts to fall through the upper atmosphere of the planet. I look to the panel in front of me, to the left of it are the faces of my teammates, all of them but Thwaite have their visors polarized.

"Adjust your pods five degrees west." He orders, I punch in the commands and my pod moves slightly to the left.

"Activate thrusters." I punch in another command, my pod starts to slow as the thrusters activate.

A seraph flies directly in front of my pod, shooting straight past the window. Plasma flak starts to fly around us as we descend, my panel lights up blue and green and purple after every bolt flies by.

"Drag chutes." Thwaite says calmly.

I activate my drag chute, my pod lurches again as it continues to lose speed. I smash into something and I continue falling, blue blood smears my window as I fall through the roof of a skyscraper.

"Holy shit Hawkins, you took out the flak." Thwaite says with a laugh.

I smash through at least fifteen floors before stopping in the lobby of some mildly fancy hotel, everything around me now destroyed by my pod.

I pull the three levers to my left right and front, my pod door shoots out, smashing into the wall in front of me. I grab my M7 and I clip it to my side, I then grab my M732. I point the SAW out the door and I climb out, visually sweeping the area around me.

"Everybody meet at the ONI tower we-." My radio cuts to static, I slap the side of my helmet twice but nothing happens. I groan but I continue walking around the lobby. I walk past the employee desk into the back room, where I find my first contact of humans.

A pale man with black hair sits propped up against the wall, twin blades stabbed into his chest, a ran woman sits in the corner, visually shivering and crying.

I start to walk over to her but I hear an odd sound of a plasma blade activating, I hit the deck before I even realize what is going on. This move saves my life as the sword is swing over me, missing. I flip around and I hold down the trigger of my M732, unleashing lead into the monster who stands over me. The Elite collapses, his sword deactivating.

I stand up and I walk over to the woman, taking my right hand from the barrel of my SAW and offering it to her. She takes it quickly and I help her stand.

"Thank you." She says quietly, I just nod.

"The Covenant is jamming us, stick with me and I can get you out of here." I tell her, she nods and I start walking. She follows.

I walk to the employee desk, running my hand under the table, searching for something most smart establishments keep. My hand hits something and I grab it, pulling it from under the desk. A civilian issue M6 magnum. I hand it to the woman.

"I've never shot one of these before." She says, nervously.

"Well now that it's life or death you'd better learn quickly." I retort, walking over to the front doors of the hotel.

"What's your name?" She asks.

"I dunno if I'm allowed to tell you." I answer back with a small chuckle. I open the doors and I look outside, it looks like the apocalypse hit, deserted cars sitting on the street and dust flying around. I look around the corner of the door, nothing. I signal for the girl to move up with me.

"What's your name?" I ask her.

"I'll tell you if you say yours." She replies.

"My name is black ink, yours?" I say, irritated.

"Lucy." She says with a sigh, awkwardly holding her magnum.

"Right." I say, jogging out of the door to a small car. I look through the window, a man and his daughter who is in her teenage years sit inside, their chests rising and falling.

I look around the vehicle and I notice the fact the car we rammed into a streetlight.

"Probably should've seen that sooner." I mutter to myself.

I walk over to the driver side window and I reel back my fist, smashing it into the window. Glass pieces bounce off my titanium armor. I reach inside and I unlock all of the doors, I then open the driver side door.

The mans eyes slowly open and he sees me, they go wide and he tries to scramble back, his locked seatbelt prevents him from doing so.

"I'm a friendly." I say to him, he just nods and looks in the back.

"Jasmine!" He cries out, unbuckling his seatbelt and crawling into the back, I can tell his leg is broken. The girl has blood running from her forehead into her partially opened lips, the man shakes her a little and her eyes open.

"Lucy, help them and I'll cover you." I say to her.

"What should I call you?" She asks.

"1-6." I tell her, taking cover behind the open car door and propping my SAW in the broken window.

Lucy climbs into the car and slips the magnum into her belt, she appears to know where the safety is and everything.

Lucy and the Jasmine's father help her out of the car, the father cries out and collapses once he puts weight on his leg.

"Fucking hell.." I mutter, pulling my rucksack from my back.

"What're you doing?" Lucy asks me.

"Looking for something... Found it." I say, producing a needle from my bag.

"What're you gonna do?" Jasmine asks me.

"Help him.. Hold him down." I say to them, stepping away from my SAW and the car door.

The girls hold down the man as I place my hands on the broken leg.

"Listen.. What's his name?" I ask Jasmine.

"James." She replies.

"Listen James, this is gonna hurt like hell, but I need you at 100% so I'm taking the risk, alright?" I ask, he starts shaking his head but I quickly snap his leg back into place, effectively reseting the bone. Before he can scream, Lucy covers his mouth with her hand, muffling his screams.

I slide the needle into his arm and I press down the plunger, sending adrenaline into his bloodstream, I then throw the needle away.

"We should be good." I say to them.

Lucy nods as they help James stand up, his eyes wide, he looks at me and nods. I sigh and look at my small hand of civilians.

"Right, James you know how to operate a weapon?" I ask him.

"Yeah, I'm a police officer, I know how to handle civilian issue weapons." He says to me, nervously.

"Think you can handle an M7?" I ask him, pulling the SMG from my belt and offering it to him. He nods and takes the weapon, holding it awkwardly.

I pull my SOCOM from my side and I look to Jasmine. "This is a silenced military grade magnum, it's got a fully automatic firing mode and a single fire mode." I inform her, tapping the fire mode option for her to see.

She takes the pistol and I pull my magazines from my rucksack, handing them out to all three of them. "Right, now we hope." I tell them, putting my rucksack on my back

I grab my SAW and I take it from its position on the car window. I then start walking up the street, continuously looking around for contacts. I spot the ONI tower, about four blocks up the road, standing tall above most other buildings, the words Office of Naval Intelligence written across its side.

I point at the tower. "My team is meeting me there... Hopefully, so we'll get you all out of here." I say to the civilians walking behind me, Lucy nods.

A plasma bolt flies past my head, just barely scraping off the left side of my helmet, I go into combat mode, looking for my target. A Grunt patrol moves into cover, an Elite minor who leads them stays in the very back of the patrol.

"Get to cover!" I shout to the civilians, they all duck behind cars and behind walls, I personally find cover behind a pillar that belongs to a museum just to the left of the road. I flip around the pillar and I start suppressing the elite, and then the Grunt with the shiniest armor, usually a more experienced soldier.

I hear a magnum shot and a Grunt scream and I know that Lucy hit her target. More gunfire erupts up the street, from the sounds of it, M7 SMG and MA37 fire. The patrol finds different cover and we continue engaging.

The Elite in the patrol throws away its plasma rifle and pulls its energy sword from its side, charging towards us. James is the first to be targeted by the Elite, the minor slams into James and slices open his stomach with the energy sword it wields.

I spray the rest of my magazine into the Elite, causing it to fall over, dead. I hear more gunfire from the same place and my hope grows, I know my fellow ODST's are up the street, helping us.. But why do they have MA37's?

The patrol is disposed of and I run up the street while Jasmine and Lucy sit next to James, comforting him as he dies.

A bullet whizzes past my helmet, causing me to hit the ground. "Friendly!" I call out to them.

"Who are you?" A voice rings out.

"ODST Hotel team!" I call back.

"Get up here!" The voice calls back, I stand and I jog up the street, what I find is not what I am hoping for.

A group of about fifteen civilians, all armed with military and civilian grade weaponry sit behind cars and other cover, talking quietly amongst themselves.

"Fuck.." I say, I look down at the man who was talking to me.

"So the UNSC got here, I thought we only had the local Army." The man says to me.

"Right now it's just my team in the city and your militia if it's still alive." I admit.

"Where's the rest of you?"

"Other side of the planet." I respond.

"Why are you here, then?" He asks me, obviously annoyed.

"Well, our objective is search and rescue for a scientist, but I guess civilians are now an objective." I answer, he nods.

"I understand." He says to me.

"Good, I've got one dead and two shaken civilians on the other side of the street, if you can get your group up, we can meet with the rest of my team and get you all on the first shuttle to Paris IV." I say to him, he nods and motions for his group to stand. We walk down the road to Lucy and Jasmine, who are talking in bushes tones.

"Listen up!" I call out.

All heads turn in my direction as I start to speak.

"We're going to the ONI tower, we'll call a Pelican and get you all off of Arcadia." I call out to them. Most of them simply nod or stay silent. I walk over to James' dead body and I grab my M7, clipping it back to my belt before I begin walking towards the ONI tower, seventeen civilians behind me.

We make it to the tower with no contact, other than a sight of three elite majors walking into the ONI tower.

"Anybody on this net?" I hear over the radio, I quickly put my hand up to my helmet and start speaking while using my free hand to motion the civilians into cover.

"This is 1-6, identify yourself." I say over the net.

"Hawkins? Holy shit! It's Volker, where are you?" He asks.

"Outside of the ONI tower, is everyone ok?" I ask him.

"Alright, Thwaite is ordering us over to you, and yeah we're fine, Cairns took a needler round to the breastplate but Thwaite took it out before it blew up." He explains.

I look around me, at all of the civilians. "Volker, I have a group of seventeen civilians with me." I say to him.

"Hoo, shiet man.. We're almost there, hang tight brother." He says, his voice quickly turning to static.

"Watch for more ODST's incoming." I warn the men and women around me.

I keep my eyes on the ONI tower, an unknown amount of Covenant soldiers more than likely patrolling on the inside of the massive structure, poised to strike.

I hear the sound of metal boots against concrete as Hotel takes up cover with my group, half of the team watches the flank while the other half watches the ONI tower.

"Listen up." Thwaite says loudly, all heads turn towards him. "Our orders are to infiltrate that building and evac on the top of it... I can't ask that you go in there with us, but the more troops the better for us, and better of a chance you get off this planet and to a refugee camp until we kick the Covenant out of this system." The civilians nod, none of them moving.

"If you're not coming, leave now." He says, nobody moves. "Right, lets go." We all start jogging towards the tower, the main entrance straight ahead. The ODST's take up positions around the doors, the civilians watch our flank as we take flash bangs from our belts, opening the doors, priming the grenades and tossing them inside, closing the doors as we do so.

A symphony of bangs erupt from inside and the screams of Covvies echo off the courtyard and voice off the buildings around us. We move away from the glass doors and start to spray through the glass, causing the doors to break as we unload round after round into the lobby.

We stop firing once Thwaite waves us off, we walk through the open and broken entrance, the place is a mess. The once elaborate couches and carpets have feathers, blood, and bullet holes all over them, the floor is different colors of blood. A Grunt drags itself towards the elevator, its methane tank slowly leaking. McCal puts a SOCOM round through the back of its head.

The civilians move in behind us, taking up positions in the lobby, facing the entrance and scanning for contact. Most of the civilians awkwardly hold their weapons, signifying the skill level most of them have with fire arms.

"I see you down there." A voice says from out of nowhere.

"Who's this?" Thwaite asks.

"Doctor Anders." The voice says.

"We're here to rescue you." He says back.

"Oh, I know, but if I let you into the elevator.." She says as the elevator doors shut, along with the entrance, a large riot shield covering the exit. "Then the Covenant might get to me." She says to us.

"We'll make sure that doesn't happen ma'am." Thwaite says to the voice.

"They are here.. Hurry." She says, disappearing.

The elevator opens but the exit remains shut, the ODST's step into the elevator and tap the top floor button.

"Keep in contact!" Thwaite calls out to the civilians.

The doors shut and the elevator makes speedy progress to the top of the tower. A song comes on as we go up, making things ever so awkward. The song just repeats 'Stayin' Alive' over and over until the elevator dings and the doors open, revealing the two Elite majors we had seen earlier.

Reid and Chorei put one shotgun round in one of the Elites before we move out, jogging up the office cubicle like floor.

"Hotel, this is Pedro at your service, heard ya'll needed a bird." A voice calls out over comm.

"Pedro, we have a count of seventeen armed civilians who need evacuation way before we do, requesting you to make two trips." Thwaite replies.

"Solid copy, Oscar Mike, ETA is two mikes." Pedro says.

"Alexander, you hear that?" Thwaite asks the civilian.

"Already on our way, thank you Sergeant." The man replies, Thwaite nods to himself and we continue moving.

"Up ahead, the door on the left is where that transmission was coming from." Reid says, pointing her shotgun in that direction.

"How the hell do you know?" McCal asks.

"I guess Jesus told me." She replies, drawing snickers and chuckling from the rest of the squad. "No but seriously, my dad used to work in an ONI tower, they are literally all the same, up ahead is the intercom system, it has lockable doors." She tells us.

We walk up the hall and breach the room, sweeping it for hostiles. A splatter of blood is on the wall, a M6G magnum and a lab coat on the ground below it.

"Fuck.." Thwaite mutters, putting his hand on his helmet.

"COM, this is Hotel 1-1, Doctor Anders has been captured." Thwaite says over the radio.

"Copy that Hotel, move to extraction." COM replies as we walk out of the room.

"Pedro, this is Hotel, do you copy?" Thwaite asks.

"Send traffic Hotel." Pedro replies.

"Did you make it out with the civilians?" Thwaite asks.

"Copy that, all civilians are now aboard the UNSC Texas." Pedro says to us.

"We need you now." Thwaite tells Pedro.

"Alrighty, sounds good, on the way." Pedro says, logging off net.

"Let's move." Thwaite tells us, we start jogging down the hallway until we reach the staircase, we walk up to the roof and move to the landing pad, quickly setting up a perimeter.

A Pelican flies from around one of the skyscrapers below us, lifting up to our altitude and swooping down on to the landing pad.

We get in by order of call sign, and then the bird takes off, flying us off to an FOB near the city of Avalon.

Authors note

I am honestly excited and terrified to switch like this, but I love the ODST's and I feel like I can keep going with them for a while, bringing them on green and black ops missions and using my own personal ideas to gear the story in the right direction. Do not worry! Immortals will still be a thing, along with all of the characters I have already introduced, and trust me, I will still write chapters in Shrake's POV, Wood's POV, etc... Just not as often. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the first of many ODST chapters with the introduction of Reid, Chorei, Volker, Cairns, Thwaite, and McCal.. Next chapter will be next Wednesday! Also, forgive me for my time mistake, I really wanted to do the battle of Arcadia and then realized I would have to travel back in time.. So just.. Ehm.. Ignore it, thanks.

Also, I am reluctant to introduce one of my characters because in the RP, her nickname is Grass, based off of The Life, so I don't know what to do about her, let me know in the reviews because I don't wanna copy other peoples work.

Read on

-Rsk


	21. Defense of Avalon

Chapter XX: Defense of Avalon

Arcadia, Procyn system

February 9th, 2531 UNSC Calendar

Private Anson Hawkins

ODST Squad: Hotel

We land at the FOB outside of Avalon City, Greenbacks load civilians into Pelicans and other land to space aircraft in hopes of evacuating them before the inevitable happened. Most of the UNSC knows what happens on campaigns against the Covenant, almost always we lose the space battle, and then the land battle.

However, the UNSC _Texas_ and the UNSC _Spirit of Fire_ managed to take out the CCS Battlecruiser after it deployed its troops to Avalon in respond to our little assault on the ONI tower. The UNSC Fleet is still fighting it out with the one CCS Battlecruiser and the two HPV Heavy Destroyers.

"Hawkins, over here." McCal calls out. I walk over to him and he leans against the table behind him as I do. We sit inside of the temporary ODST barracks, a tent with some nice deployable beds, tables, and chairs inside.

"The UNSC _Belfast_ and the _Texas_ just went down, so we're expected to get more contact in Mu, and here in Avalon, so we'll be deploying soon." McCal says to me, I just nod.

"Listen, I passed out copies of this to the rest of the squad, if I don't survive this is my letter." He says to me, handing me a white letter. I just nod again. "Thanks for understanding." He says to me, clapping me on the shoulder and walking away.

I sit down at the table and I slide a letter and a pen from the center of the table. I start writing a letter.

Dear Private First Class Sara Mijovlik of the UNSC Engineer Corps.

It's me, Anson. I have been on deployment for around four months since we last spoke, and I want you to know that I am still alive, I just haven't been able to write because of multiple deployments. In fact, we are currently about to defend Avalon City from an attack as I write this. Don't lose heart, I will see you soon.

With regards.

Anson

I put the pen down and I fold the letter, it would very easily be able to find her. I stand and I walk out of the tent, my weapons already attached to me, I find the mail post and I slide the letter into it, it'd leave the planet with the civilians once we get them all out.

My helmet beeps with a message and I know that I'm being called to the rest of the squad. I jog out of the barracks and I step into the command tent, all of the other ODST's are there, including the other representatives from the entire platoon of ODST's that deployed with the Belfast.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Covenant forces deployed from the last CCS Battlecruiser are gathering a couple of miles north of Avalon city, we have FORECON engage them and scout them, which has caused the enemy to move on the city, we will be deploying to stop them and kick their asses out of this system." The man in the center of the room says to us.

"Now, Second Platoon will be deploying with the rest of its company, while Hotel squad makes some havoc. The moment that Hotel gives the word, your company will deploy and hopefully push the Covenant out of the city." He says to us. "Hotel, do and bring anything you want to wreak havoc." He tells us, Thwaite just nods.

"Move out boys." Thwaite says to us, we all walk out of the tent, headed towards the armory to grab extra ammunition and explosives. I personally pick up a block of C-12 and a couple of extra drum magazines for my M732 SAW. I make sure to pack my rucksack light, but still heavy to the point of being prepared for what lays ahead.

I look around at my new squad, I can already tell who I want watching my back. Chorei and Reid seem to be good friends, Chorei is generally a nice guy, so I've seen so far, and Reid carries a shotgun, much like Chorei. Riley doesn't seem to fit in with anybody other than McCal who is constantly helping the man exceed beyond his normal capabilities. Then there's Volker, who I personally get along with considering he is from German ancestry, he also has a nice sense of humor. Then there's Cairns, who I get along with a lot too, considering we joined the squad at the same time. Thwaite is always over exaggerating with his emotions, some people have taken to calling him Blue Swede after an apparent incident where he started screaming the lyrics of 'Hooked on a Feeling' at the enemy, I grin just thinking about it.

I walk out of the barracks with Volker, talking to him about combinations of food and drink.

"I personally like yogurt and whiskey." Volker says to me.

"I like the yogurt part, but you gotta grab some kind of German brew like Heineken or something like that." I explain to him.

"Man, but Heineken tastes like shit.." He complains as we walk out into the courtyard.

"Yeah, but have you tried it with yogurt?" I ask him.

He thinks for a moment. "I don't believe I have." He says to me.

I throw my hands up in the air, my SAW still on my back. "Well there you have it!" I say to him.

We both laugh before walking over to the Pelican landing area. The rest of the squad makes their way to that location, mounting up into a Pelican with the words 'Just Missed Me!' on the side.

I sit down near the exit and I make sure to secure my SAW to the weapon holder next to me, I then have an odd thought about weapon holders being like cup holders inside of cars, but I quickly dispose of the thought as I strap into the seat.

The Pelican takes off, the back door closes and the landing gear lifts off of the ground, the intercom clicks on.

"Hello ladies and gentlemen, my name is Warrant Officer Redwood and I will be your pilot today on the JMM, or Just Missed Me." He says.

"Can we get some refreshments?" McCal yells at the intercom, we all start to chuckle and snicker.

"Unfortunately I drank all of the alcohol before taking off, so you'll have to wait until later." The pilot says, the laughing stops for a moment as we think about what the pilot had just told us.

I sit back in my seat and I tighten my seatbelt, preparing myself for a relatively short, but bumpy ride. The troop bay lights up green as plasma flak flies around us, causing the Pelican to shake.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are experiencing minor turbulence that may or may not include us getting shot at, please remain in your seats, one Mike out." The pilot says over the intercom.

I'm not a very religious man, but I close my eyes and I started praying to whatever god who would listen, hoping to get out. Deep down I know we are going to survive this.

The Pelican touches the ground and I grab my SAW, running out and jumping down on top of the skyscraper we had landed on. I roll as I hit the ground, pointing my SAW towards the east side of the tower as I recover.

"Clear east!" I shout.

"West is clean!"

"No Covvies to the north."

"South looks A-OK."

"Everyone to the north side of the building." Thwaite orders, I jog over to him.

"Alright boys, time to rappel down." He says to us, I reach down to my right side holster, opposite of my magnum holster and I grab my grappling hook.

Almost in synchronization we all aim and shoot our hooks at the ground between our legs, we attach the rope to our gauntlets before jumping off of the roof, slowly jumping and walking on a vertical slope, straight down to the street.

When my boots touch the polycrete sidewalk, I detach my cable and I grab my SAW off of my magnetic holster. I watch as the rest of my squad touches the ground with me, starting to walk towards a glowing beacon on our HUDs. We don't take any contact on our way to the enemy camp and all is relatively quiet despite the gunfire in the distance.

We make our way to the camp, it's in the city square, allowing McCal and Riley to get on the roof of one of the skyscrapers around the square. We surround the camp, slowly making a large kill box, we keep our weapons at the ready.

Inside of the camp there are three wraiths, two phantoms and at least fifty soldiers, but according to our intel this is just the scouting force, the larger force is what we need to draw out of the shadows.

I watch on my HUD map as Volker slowly moves over to the vehicles, placing charges on the back of them and then scampering back to cover, all is well so far.

I personally kneel behind a large set of bleachers over looking the rest of the square, ready to pin down any Covenant bastard in my way.

"McCal, Riley, engage high priority targets." Thwaite says over the radio. High priority targets are the Covenant that are harder to take down, monsters like the hunters or high ranking Elites.

In the camp is one Hunter pair, which is immediately targeted by our scout snipers. One of the two completely loses its head as two vapor trails cut straight into it, the other roars and spins around, looking for our snipers. It fails to find the men, resulting in its quick death.

The rest of the camp goes into chaos as sniper rounds start flying, some of the Elites get together Grunts to man the vehicles and open fire on the roof where our snipers sit.

"McCal, Riley, relocate, Hawkins engage with your SAW while Volker sends these vehicles to hell." Thwaite orders.

I grin as I lay down, setting up my bipod and depressing the trigger of my SAW, sending rounds spitting out towards the enemy.

Every single vehicle in the compound explodes, causing blue fire to rain down around the now boxed in enemy.

Chorei and Reid run in with their M45's, destroying any contact who gets within ten meters of them. The rest of the squad opens up on the enemy as their numbers dwindle, until none are left.

"Quickly, get eyes to the South, McCal and Riley." Thwaite orders. "Everyone else set up defenses, FLEETCOM is picking up heat signatures coming towards us." Thwaite says, I find some nice cover before reloading my SAW with fresh ammunition and re-setting my bipod.

The first enemy to run around the corner in front of me is an Elite minor with an energy sword clutched in its left hand, I hold down the trigger and mow him down as more of his Conrad's come around the corner, each falling to the lead flying out of my SAW.

"It's like a shooting gallery!" I say with a laugh, which is cut short by my gun clicking, I pull back the bolt before I hear a snapping sound. I look at my gun, and I realize I had literally pulled the bolt off of my gun.

"Fuck!" I yell, the enemy starts to fire at me as I drop my SAW, grabbing my M7 from my side and bringing it to my shoulder. I start spraying the force in front of me, Cairns slides down next to me and starts to put bursts into the enemy with her MA5D.

My gun clicks again and I feel myself being lifted to my feet, a large hand grabbing the back of my helmet. I see a glowing blue light out of the corner of my eye and I swing around, bashing the Elite minor across the face with my SMG. It roars and let's go of my helmet, swinging blindly at me.

Meanwhile Cairns keeps the enemies in front of our cover at bay, putting round after round into every Grunt or Elite that comes our way, but it was starting to become too much. Two rounds fly by, smashing through three Grunts at once. The enemy has been using charge tactics with only Grunts and occasionally Elites until this time, to exhaust our ammo and make us vulnerable to attack.

I hit the ground as the Elite literally bitch slaps my helmet, a spider web of cracks forming in front of my left eye. I see the blue light curving downwards and I roll out of the way, the sword smashes down into the ground next to me. I pull my Ka-Bar knife from my side and I jump up, holding it with one hand, at the ready. The Elite stabs at me and I step to the side, slashing down on the Elites arm, causing his energy shield to glow brightly.

The Elite is getting pissed at this time and swings at me again, I duck under the blade and sink mine into the alien's belly, making it roar again. The massive alien looks at me and drops its sword, clutching its wound. I spin around and lop the things head right from its shoulders before returning to the line with Cairns, after putting away my large knife and picking up my M7.

I slap a fresh magazine into the SMG and I continue to spray down Grunts as they run towards us, forcing them to join the like of dead bodies their Conrad's had made. The Grunts start to get closer and closer with each wave, until the point where I was standing and literally batting them away from our position before spraying them down.

"Can we get some help over here?!" Cairns yells into the radio.

"We're surrounded on all sides! No way!" Reid screams back, the sounds of shotgun fire evident through her transmission.

"Where the fuck is that company?!" McCal yells.

"On their way! Just hang on!" Thwaite yells, I look at McCal's feed and I realize that he was aiming his magnum down the staircase of his building, a pile of Grunts down the flight he was aiming at.

My gun clicks again and I throw it down to my side, grabbing my magnum and firing into the crowd again. Cairns starts to back away from our position and I do the same, then we're both running towards the middle of the square.

"The North side is lost, we're retreating." I say over comm before turning and firing more shots towards the Grunts struggling to get through the walls that they themselves put up for this camp.

"Copy that." Thwaite says, he sounds pissed.

I crouch in the middle of the square, suddenly the rest of my squad is there with me, Grunts and now Elites starting to close in on us. I throw my only two grenades into the crowd, splattering a couple of tight formations of Grunts and two Elite minors. The rest of our grenades fly out and we get some breathing room, we start to push out again. I pull my large knife from its sheathe and I keep my magnum in my right hand and my knife in my left, wielding them to use.

A grunt gets too close and gets stabbed through the gas mask, giving my knife a nice blue paint job. I aim my magnum and I pull the trigger. Click. I throw the magnum into a Grunt's face, cracking his mask.

"Wilco on ammo!" I yell.

I start slashing and spinning around, taking down and wounding as many Grunts as it would take, slowly their advance is pushed back until they are out of the camp, buying us more time. I walk up to Cairns and she passes me her SMG and the five clips she has for it.

"Use the ammo wisely, not everyone is as generous as I am." She says with a laugh, I nod and grin, my helmet depolarizing as I do so.

"Oi! They're gonna be back soon!" McCal calls out over the radio, he had since gotten off of his building to help with the effort ground side.

My helmet polarizes and I jog over to a dumpster, it sits in an alley with only one entrance, so I sit on the side of the dumpster without an entrance as to not be flanked.

The rest of the squad takes up similar positions, nothing that could ever protect us considering how spread we are, but a nice kill box to finish off as many aliens as we can.

This time Elite's, all of the officers and leaders, charge with the rest of their men, the first thing however, to turn the corner is a Wraith.

"Volker, get your SPANKr ready." Thwaite orders.

"It's ready Gunny." The German man replies, I can imagine him aiming the rocket towards the Wraith.

"If any of you run out of ammo during this, I'm giving you full permission to grab a plasma rifle." Thwaite tells us. "Volker, engage."

A rocket flies out of one of the alleyway's, smashing into the left side of the Wraith. The rocket must've hit something important because a second later the Wraith erupts into a column of blue flames.

Gunfire erupts as we engage the dazed aliens around the destroyed tanks, mowing them down in a second flat. That gives them all they need to charge at us full force. At least fifty more of them come streaming from around buildings, taking cover and firing on us.

Blue plasma smashes into the dumpster that I now hide behind, slowly starting to melt it. I flip around the corner and I spray around half of my clip into the Elite keeping me pinned down, leaving him to choke on his own blood.

I fire short bursts to make sure I conserve my ammunition, but the Elite's shields were really the biggest advantage against us, and they know it, too.

"FLEETCOM, we need something here right now!" Thwaite yells into the radio.

"Copy that, we have a surprise for you that you're going to hate and love." The operator replies, them the radio starts spewing static, my HUD turns off.

Then the ground is shaking, an apartment complex on the other side of the street collapses before the shaking stops and I realize what has just happened.

The enemy stands still and seems to be shocked, but their time to think is quickly interrupted by hot lead flying their way. The EMP blast that had just happened literally took out their shields and any plasma weapon other than the rifle and pistol, considering most of the other weapons run on some kind of battery that was fried by the blast.

I continue spraying across the front line of enemies, clenching my teeth the entire time while I do so, watching each individual enemy falling.

My HUD turns back on by the time the enemy had broken and was running out of Avalon, away from the squad of ODST's veiled in darkness, of course on their way out of the city they are intercepted and eradicated by First Company.

"Hotel squad, nice work, check yourselves out and see if you're wounded." FLEETCOM says over the radio.

And that's when we realized the importance of the operation that has just taken place, not just in Avalon but I all of the continents and cities of Arcadia, later we find that the UNSC has pushed the Covenant out of every population center, allowing for a complete evacuation of 7.3 million civilians out of the 8 million that live on Arcadia, deeming this one of the most successful UNSC tactical victories yet, but the fight still isn't over.

I sit down and I take my helmet off, I once explained to Taylor why I would never do something like this, but as of right now I'm happy to be alive, which is why I start writing again.

Dear Private First Class Sara Mijovlik

Sara, it's Anson again, by now you've probably received my first letter and are glad that I am still alive and kicking, right now Arcadia is looking like a UNSC victory, all Covenant vessels in the area have been destroyed before backup could be called in and it's looking like a good day to be alive. I can't wait to get back to you on Reach, so just keep in touch.

Anson

Authors note

Wow this chapter was delayed.

And let me tell you exactly why. I wanted to make this chapter special, so I put in all of my willpower and energy into it, so that it would be good. Another problem is spring break and my mom having surgery on her meniscus and then finally Hairspray, my school is running this musical and I have an awesome part in it... Yes I'm in high school. Anyway I really hope you enjoyed the new chapters of my ODST themed story ( for now, I've got ideas in the book )

Hairspray is now over!

Read on

-Rsk


	22. On its Kness

Chapter XXI: On its Knees

Arcadia, Procyn system  
February 11th, 2531 UNSC Calendar  
Private Anson Hawkins  
ODST Squad: Hotel

The last of the Covenant forces are trapped on Arcadia, all of them joining together in their final stand against us, in hopes that they can survive to head back to their home worlds and hopefully eradicate us while doing so.

But their morale is low, and ours is through the roof, Ranger teams depart from Camp Matthews outside of Avalon City in Falcon transport ships to shoot fleeing squads of Covenant soldiers with sniper rifles, returning back with at least two more kills on their records.

But for us, we wait while the Rangers and the Marines get all of the action, our wounds constantly healing while we do so.

I personally sit back and sleep most of the day, and stay up all night, I hope for a mission before boredom takes over. Volker walks into the tent and sits down on his bunk, I open my eyes and nod to him, he just grins a goofy grin and stands up, looking down at me.

"We've got a mission, really easy too." He says to me.

I raise an eyebrow. "Well, what is it?" I ask him.

"The Covenant actually managed to set up a supply line, so we're going to make sure their supplies never make it to their FOB." He says to me.

"Right." I answer, sitting up and reaching down, grabbing my helmet and sliding it on over my head, my armor, which I was sleeping in, hisses as my helmet locks into place and secures itself into my armor, allowing for a totally alienated environment inside of my suit.

I stand up and I follow Volker to the armory where we were forced to leave our weapons, unfortunate considering we could've died if anybody attacked us and we all had to rush to the armory.

I enter the makeshift armory and I grab my SAW from where I left it, along with enough ammo and grenades to last me at least two days of constant fighting. I then grab my M7 and my SOCOM. My exoskeleton inside of my armor helps me absorb some of the weight from the weapons and ammo, but I can still feel a lot of weight on me, not like it is a problem.

I step out of the armory and I run over to where the Falcon's sit, Hotel starts to load on to one of the Falcon's as its engines heat up, preparing itself for the ride ahead. I personally sit on the treads of the Falcon, holding on to the bar under, my armor magnetically attaches me to the Falcon, but if something happened to the ship, there is no guarantee it will work.

The ship lifts off the ground and starts to fly off, an hour later we land and dismount from the ship as it takes off again, zipping back towards our base. We take up defensive positions just in case of contact before moving out towards the path of the supply runs.

The path is in between two tree lines, wide enough to compensate for Wraith tanks if they still have any, and perfect for an ambush. We spread out along the tree lines, Volker runs out in the middle and starts to set down mines and other explosives such as C12. He first places an explosive that I don't recognize, and then some anti-tank mines and then C12.

Volker runs back into the trees, sliding and landing next to me, tapping my arm as he finishes his dramatic entrance.

"What was that first mine you put down?" I ask him, he depolarizes his visor and grins at me.

"We call them Tiger mines, when a vehicle runs over them, the mine magnetically attaches to the bottom and drills it's way into an inch of the metal before exploding." He says to me, I raise an eyebrow.

"I've got to see this for myself." I say with a laugh, rolling my shoulders to help stretch and get ready for the long fighting ahead.

We wait for about two hours, eating our shitty UNSC standard issue nutrient bars before we hear the low him of gravity engines, we get ready.

The first vehicle we see is a Shadow transport ship, it rounds the corner and floats towards the first Tiger mine, two other Shadow's and a Wraith follow it.

The transport runs over the mine and keeps going, over the rest of the explosives before erupting in a column of blue flames, one of the two other Shadows explode before the convoy can even stop, leaving one Shadow and a Wraith.

Volker pulls his SPANKr from the tree beside him, firing two rockets in quick succession at the Wraith, the tanks gravity engine shuts off, leaving a husk of metal to fall to the ground.

A squad of elite minors wearing fancy armor dismount from the Shadow, running away from the transport and into the trees, where we wait for them. The treeline erupts as bullets fly towards the squad, all of the aliens glow blue as their energy shields try to withstand the barrage of lead. The aliens fire back, a tree next to me is melted as I open up with my SAW, cutting down two of them before rolling to the right as plasma fire focuses on my position.

"Help me out!" I cry out, keeping my head down as plasma bolts fly over me.

"Eat this fuckers!" I hear over the radio along with an explosion, the plasma pinning me down ceases.

I sigh with relief, I lift up my head and I look around, the Shadow still sits in the middle of the path, gravity engines in working order and in mint condition.

"FLEETCOM, this is Hotel, we have wiped one enemy convoy, we still have a working Shadow transport on our position, please advise, over." Thwaite says over the radio.

"Hotel, wait for five mikes while a Pelican comes to you, it will pick up the Shadow for researching." The operator says to us.

"Copy that, Hotel is out." Thwaite says, he sits down at the base of a tree and takes his helmet off.

The Pelican arrives and picks up the Shadow, it flies off back towards ONI HQ on Arcadia, one of the tallest buildings on the entire planet.

"Attention all units of the UNSC, including Black ops. A universal HUD marker had been placed on the enemy's last line of defense, Marine company Charlie was unable to break through and is retreating due to 60% casualties, move to that point and kill any alien in sight on your way, this is a direct order from Fleet Admiral Havick." My helmet seems to scream at me, I look at Thwaite, he has jumped up from his tree and has slapped his helmet on, he starts walking towards the point.

I look at the distance meter of our objective and I realize it's about twenty kilometers away, which isn't that bad if you're an ODST. We start jogging, moving faster as we go along until we start to hear other breaks in the woods to our left, we all look to see at least a platoon of Army Rangers charging with us, weapons fully loaded.

I blink and I breathe out heavily, my body just now seems to register how long I've been running for, I look at the meter again. One kilometer. Plasma fire and mortars start splashing down around us, taking out trees and sometimes a Ranger or two.

We all scream out at once, another Company worth of Marines joins on our right flank, sprinting towards the enemy line that was now sending bolt after bolt of multi color plasma straight at us, I watch as the ODST in front of me falls, I didn't catch his name, I keep running.

We get within one hundred meters of the line before stopping and laying down our own hellfire, I watch in fascination as their lines break, Grunts and Jackals start retreating to another line, they make it halfway before that line open fires on them, spraying down the remnants of the first line.

We all jump into the first line, setting up our weapons and spraying down the second and last line of enemies, I depress the trigger of my SAW, the butt of the weapon rattling against my shoulder plate as I watch all colors of blood fly in front of me, covering the ground and the grass that used to grow green in the forest.

The Marine company starts chucking grenades while I reload, body parts start to fly out of the enemy lines, the screams of enemy soldiers rise above all other noise, and then the plasma fire stops, the rest of the aliens have their hands in the air.

We all jump out of the line and approach the last line, our weapons aimed at the surrendering soldiers.

"What do we do with them?!" A Marine yells, I make sure my helmet is recording before screaming back.

"Kill'em all!" I scream, gunfire erupts as we cut down the aliens in front of us, blood of different colors shoots out of the trench's, bathing the ground in blood.

_  
One year later

"Jim, the citizens of the UNSC and the UEG are concerned as the UEGA is consumed by the UNSC, adding another three trillion troops to the efforts against the insurgents." The female reporter on the TV says.

I laugh at her, I sit in the same bar I met Sara in on Reach, I think about the insurgent wars as I drink with her.

"Breaking news! An announcement from the Office of Naval Intelligence has confirmed that we have found other life in the universe, and it is not friendly, stay tuned for more!" The reporter says, obviously distressed as the TV switches to commercials. I nearly spit out my beer as she makes the announcement.

"This just in, alien life has been discovered by the UNSC, a shocking reveal that about 2.5 billion troops have already paid the ultimate price against this new threat, exclusive leaked footage has gone viral across the internet as people cower in fear, here it is."

I look up at the TV and I see a SAW being pointed at a Jackal, and then a yell. "What do we do with them?!" The person we watch screams back. "Kill'em all!" The SAW sprays down the Jackal in front of him, the clapping of gunfire screams through the background of the footage.

My phone buzzes, I pull it from my pocket and I read the text, I look up at Sara and frown.

"What is it?" She asks.

"I gotta go." I tell her.

She nods and leans forward, kissing me on the cheek before hopping off of the bar seat, walking out of the bar.

I step out of the bar after charging my UNSC card, a taxi waits for me. I step into the vehicle and it zips up the street, headed for the ONI tower.

I step out of the cab as it stops outside of the massive structure, I walk in and nod to the receptionist as she opens the elevators for me.

I look down at what I am wearing, a black ODST t-shirt and my BDU's, also black, a great outfit for a formal meeting with the scariest fucking man in the tower.

I step into the elevator and I wait while the dumb music plays and the elevator rises through the floors of the tower.

The elevator dings and I step out, I am immediately greeted by Lieutenant Baker, wearing a suit with a red skull pin attached to the collar.

"Hawkins, sit." He orders, I nod and I sit down in front of him. "You know why you're here, right?" He asks, annoyingly calm.

"Is if because of the footage?" I ask.

He laughs and shakes his head. "No, ONI let that slip on purpose to let the public down easily about the fact we're in a losing war." He says to me, I internally sigh with relief.

"The real reason you're here is that your entire squad is getting promoted." He tells me.

"Why's that?" I ask.

"Two reasons, number one, when you charged that trench a year ago, Gunnery Sergeant Thwaite was immediately KIA, so we need a new squad leader." He says.

"And I'm going to be squad leader?" I ask.

"Fuck no, but you're getting promoted, so enjoy Private First Class." He tells me, I nod.

"You're dismissed." He says to me, I stand and I walk back into the elevator, the doors close.

I walk out of the ONI tower and I get a call on my phone, I lift it to my ear.

"Hello?" I ask.

"Hawkins, it's McCal." An Irish voice on the phone says.

"How's your leave?" I ask.

"Good, I've only gotten one girl to sleep with me, though." He says to me.

"That's your problem."

"Right, well I just got the word that I am now Gunnery Sergeant McCal." He says to me.

"Shit man, that's great, but I didn't know Thwaite was dead until today." I say to him.

"Baker didn't go easy on you, did he?" McCal asks.

"Nope, he gave me the full shit and sent me out with a new badge." I say to him.

"Good for you, man." He says to me.

"Anyways, what's gonna happen with Hotel?" I ask him.

"It's staying the same, with a new leader." He answers.

"Gotcha, any new guys?" I ask.

"Nope." McCal answers.

"Right, I'll talk to you later." I say, clicking the hang up button and slipping my phone back into my pocket.

I walk back to the apartment the UNSC assigned me, which luckily is not a shitty run down place, it's a nice one bed one bathroom place.

I sit down on my bed and I pull my boots off, if someone were to ask me what ODST's do over leave, I'd tell them that ODST's eat, sleep, and drink over their leave, a simple answer for a complex special operations group.

I lay back and I close my eyes, dreams start to flicker through the black void between my eyes and my eye lids as I begin to fall asleep.

I'm in a cavern, with a magnum in my left hand, in front of me stands three people, two of them women and one man, all with bags over their heads.

An Elite steps out of the shadow behind them and one by one swipes the bags from their heads, the three figures reveal to be Volker, Sara, and Cairns.

"Shoot one, or die." The Elite says fluently.

I hear the sound of an energy sword activate behind me and I turn, an Elite General sits behind me, ready for the kill. I pull the magazine from my magnum, checking the amount of bullets in the magazine, one.

So, pick my girlfriend or one of two battle buddy's. Great. I look at Cairns and I raise the magnum, pulling the trigger, her body snaps back and falls to the floor, and then the image fades.

I now stand inside of a concrete building, blood covers the floor around me, soaking the bottom of my boots as I walk around in full ODST armor.

"Hawkins." A female voice says behind me.

I freeze. I know this voice. I slowly turn around and I see her, Taylor, standing behind me, her arms crossed. She wears ODDT BDU's and has a white t-shirt on, with an odd symbol on it.

"You're supposed to be dead." She hisses, starting to walk around me, when she moves I see Wolfe, hanging from the ceiling by his neck. I feel Taylor's hands on both of my shoulders, her head moves forward, her lips nearly touching my right ear.

"Why didn't you die?" She whispers to me.

I will my body to move, but I have no feeling in my muscles.

Taylor moves again, sliding her hands around my shoulders and leaning forward again, kissing me on the cheek. I watch as she pulls a switch blade from her side, slowly dragging it down my arm, causing a stream of blood to leak down my arm and drip on to the floor. She kisses my other cheek before stabbing me in the throat.

I jump up from my bed and I pull my magnum from my side, aiming it and pointing it around the room, breathing heavily.

"Wow, you really wake with a start Anson." A voice says.

I turn to the corner of my room, Taylor stands there in the same clothing. I aim the magnum at her.

"What do you want?" I spit.

"To talk, which shouldn't require weapons, I have a very talented friend to ensure that." She says.

I hear a loud boom, a small section of the wall to my right explodes, sending fragments everywhere. I feel the magnum ripped from my hands. I realize the sniper has literally shot the magnum out of my hands with a single and well placed shot.

"That's a nice fucking show Taylor, but people are going to ask questions." I say to her.

"Why are you being so hostile? I'm here to help you." She says softly.

"I understand that you ran away from being court marshaled, but you don't have to drag me into whatever shit you've gotten yourself into." I say to her.

"Hawkins, I could literally put an apple on your head and watch it get blown off, watch what you say." She says to me, in a warning tone.

"I'm listening." I say to her, crossing my arms.

"Everybody is in panic because of ONI, they released that whole deal about the Covenant and now every population is in riot, which is why my group of... Individuals are doing a raid on the ONI tower tonight, we could use your help." She says to me.

"You can go get yourselves killed, I want nothing to do with this." I say to her.

"Fine." She says, walking past me and out the door, she raises her wrist to her mouth. "Stand down, return to base." She says before closing the door behind her.

I pick up my magnum off of the floor and I sigh, laying back down and falling asleep again.

_  
Brittany Taylor  
Eridanus Insurrection

I look around at the men and women around me, all wearing light Kevlar vests and some wear riot helmets, all carry several types of weapons and ammo, the civilian issued BE54, a copy of the BR55, the MA5G, a rifle with only single fire instead of its fully auto counterpart, and finally the M7A, civilian issue SMG.

I personally carry an SRS sniper rifle, one I had personally stolen from ONI's armory before escaping the UNSC, now I am surrounded by soldiers who want to make a difference, and I am ok with that.

I raise my giant rifle in the air and the men and women around me cheer as they all start jogging out of the garage we are hiding in, straight towards the ONI tower across the street.

I look down at my watch as I take cover behind one of the pillars in front of the tower. 11:00 PM. I raise my rifle and I look down the scope, looking into the building, luckily the windows on the first and second floors aren't bulletproof, but the other 48 are.

I watch an ODST guard walking on the second floor and I take aim, pulling the trigger and absorbing the massive kick into my shoulder, I watch the ODST crumple, alarms start to blare.

"Everyone get inside!" I yell over the walkie net, we all start to run inside as the guards inside line up, their M7's at the ready.

We burst through the glass doors and the ODST guards open fire, I watch the first line of men fall down, blood pouring from their chests and necks.

We form a firing line and open fire on the guards, they fall as more come to replace them. I look around the lobby as it gets torn up by gunfire, papers flying everywhere, something descends from the ceiling and aims at us, suddenly bullets fly from the turret, cutting down five more of us before we focus fire on it.

Sirens sound and the lobby fills with red and blue lights, gunfire from behind us sounds and I know the men that had stayed to watch our flank had engaged the police. The guards stop coming as we charge forward, into the elevators. The doors close and we start flying up to the 49th floor, where most of the important people meet.

The elevator dings and the door opens, we cautiously step out, looking around.

Loud footsteps echo through the hallway as a 6'5 man wearing full titanium armor walks around the corner, standing in front of us. He holds a massive SAW, and has a full face helmet with an orange visor.

The man in front of me fires a shot into the giant, and the bullet doesn't even touch him, instead his armor flares an odd yellow color that reminds me of an Elite's energy shield.

I stop and think for a moment, my eyes go wide.

"Run!" I scream, pivoting around to go into the elevator, but the giant opens fire, walking forward and cutting down men and women with no mercy. I feel my left shoulder explode in pain, blood flies from it as the elevator doors close in front of me.

I look around, my blood has stained the wall behind me, I am the only survivor. The elevator stops.

"Ms. Taylor, so nice to see you." A voice says over me.

"Fuck off!" I yell.

"Such a shame, you were a great Special Operator, much like your father." The voice says.

"I told you to fuck off!" I yell.

"Now listen, on every floor here there are at least ten guards waiting on every floor except for the top one, I'd suggest you go there and make a last stand or turn yourself in." The voice says, I tap the fifty option.

The elevator dings and I run out, holding my right hand to my left shoulder, and my SRS with my right hand, holding it by the top rail.

I move to the edge of the building, on top of a landing pad, the elevator doors open and three guards run out, I fire three times and watch the bodies fall over.

A Pelican flies above me, painted white and blue, a spotlight on the bottom shines on me.

"This is the NAPD, drop the weapon and put your hands in the air." The Pelican says, SWAT starts to repel down from the Pelican's drop bay, I fire a shot and the rope falls, sending the SWAT to their doom, or at least one line of them.

I then aim into the sky, firing a shot into the bottom of the Pelican, under the cockpit.

The Pelican starts to spin and then fall, crushing the men beneath it and blocking the elevators, a fire in the cockpit starts.

I realize what I have done and I sigh, closing my eyes.

"I'm sorry Anson."

The Pelican explodes, sending me in a free fall fifty stories above New Alexandria.

_  
Author's note

I feel like sometimes I kill off too many characters, and then I realize that the UNSC has over 15 trillion men and women in its service so.. That's a lot of people. I went a little off canon here to let Taylor off with a bang because as far as I know, no ONI tower has been successfully raised for more than five minutes, so I apologize if any hardcore canon people are reading this. Also, I am trying my best to keep my promise and upload every Wednesday, but I have things to do, as we speak.. Or write, because that's what I am doing, I am on my way to SkillsUSA, where I will hopefully win States and then compete in Nationals, should be fun. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed, keep reviewing, favoriting, and looking at my stories, you guys are my inspiration!

Read on  
-Rsk


	23. Bouncing Back

Chapter XXII: Bouncing Back

Outside of Algolis, Agol system, on board UNSC Heart of Midloathian

January 27th, 2532 UNSC Calendar

Private First Class Anson Hawkins

7th ODST's, Hotel Squad

Algolis fell under attack on January first, 2532, the UNSC Heart of Midloathian and an unamed Frigate, along with an unidentified Charon class cruiser raced to the rescue directly from Reach, these writings are some of the first and final words of heroes in the making, stay tuned.

I sit back in my chair as I read our mission file, seemed simple enough, cover some engineers so that they can blow shit up in case the CCS Battlecruiser on the edge of the system actually does something.

"Alright listen up, we-" McCal starts, but is rudely interrupted by the ship alarms.

"Hotel, get to the bridge, full gear." A voice over the intercom says.

"You heard him!" McCal yells, we all jump up and grab our weapons, having already been dressed in our gear, we just need weapons.

As soon as we grab our weapons we're sprinting down the hallway to the bridge, the Commander waits for us there.

"Boarding craft are coming towards us, we need you to cover us in the bridge." He says, we all nod and start to take up defensive positions.

"I'll be right back!" Volker yells, he sprints back towards the armory, Cairns jumps to her feet and follows him.

Gunfire echoes down the hallway and the ship starts to shake, a sure sign that the boarding crafts had already hit.

Volker runs around the corner with boxes in his arms, Cairns follows with the same boxes. They start placing the boxes down, which turn out being deployable cover for us, changing into nice little walls to hide behind.

We take up positions as more gunfire sounds, this time it's closer.

"Fuck! Help us!" Someone screams, their scream is cut short, we prepare for the worst.

Three Elite Ultras walk towards us, all in a line, one of them carries two energy swords, one in both hands, while the other two carry plasma rifles, which they now aim in our direction.

"Fuck'em!" McCal orders, we open fire on the three Elite's, their energy shields flare as our bullets hit them. The Elites open fire, the one with the energy sword disappears into thin air as they pin us down. The fire stops momentarily as their weapons overheat, we all pop up, spraying the two Elites with lead.

I hear a cry of surprise to my left, I look and I see the Elite standing over Cairns, energy swords raised. I throw my SAW on to the ground and I grab my Ka-Bar knife from its holster, lunging forward and slamming into the Elite, Cairns rolls out of the way as I ram the Elite into the corridor wall.

I start to stab the Elite in the back of the head, it's shield slowly dies with each hit, after the fourth it turns around and tries to bitch slap me with the energy sword in its hand, I duck under it. The Elite stumbles and loses balance, falling face first on to the ground. I jump on to its back and I pull my magnum from my side, firing shot after shot into the Elite's face.

"Fuck. You. Fuck. You!" I scream after every shot, my magnum clicks and I look at the Elite, it's face now turned to mush. Volker pulls me off of the Elite, I let him do so, breathing heavily.

"Thanks Hawkins." Cairns says over whisper comm.

Volker props me up against a wall and grabs my magnum, ejecting the magazine from it and replacing it, snapping the chamber back and letting it slide back into place.

He offers me the magnum. "You good?" He asks me as I take the magnum, I just nod and I stand. I jog back to my SAW and I pick it up, placing it back on the deployable cover and using its bipod to keep it in place.

I hear thudding footsteps and I point down the hallway, a squad of Marines runs around the corner, most of them covered in different shades of blood.

"UNSC!" The Marine in the lead calls out, McCal beckons for them to come up, and they do.

"We're guarding the bridge, you can help if you want." McCal tells them, the obvious leader puts his hand up to the left side of his helmet and starts to give orders, his men move into positions and point their weapons down the hallway.

"We had a squad of Grunts and Elites chasing us last I checked, they'll probably be here soon." The Marine informs us, we just nod and keep our eyes down the hallway.

Turns out he is right about them being right behind them, the Grunts run around the corner and instantly get fired upon, covering the wall behind them with blue blood.

An Elite appears out of thin air next to a Marine, grabbing him by the throat and throwing him straight into another Marine before cloaking again.

"Thermals on!" McCal orders, I turn on the thermal function of my helmet and I watch for hear signatures.

Five signatures jog around the corner, each of them moving to different Marines to go in for the kill.

"Kill those bitches!" We all open fire on the heat signatures, they panic and start to run, bullets flying all around and hitting them. Two of the five die before the other three are able to get away, more Grunts run around the corner to join the slaughter house.

Jackals with shields set up cover for the Elites and the Grunts, opening up on the Marines and forcing them to fall back to our line. The ship shakes again and McCal stands up.

"We need to push for the drop room!" He yells.

"What about Navy?!" Cairns yells back.

"If we stay, we're all dead!" McCal yells, peppering a Jackal and knocking it on to its ass.

We start to push forward, we run down the corridor to our armory where the drop bay is, our backs to the door of the armory as enemies start to stream through, getting torn up as they walk through the door.

I grab another magazine for my SAW and I reload while the rest of my squad opens up full auto, replacing the fire I was placing down on the enemies.

I pull back the hammer and continue to lay down fire while my team reloads, classic covering fire tactics. But the enemy forces are starting to get closer and closer, setting up cover to start shooting at us with.

"Boys and girls, we're going to be doing a manual jump!" McCal yells to us, spearing a Grunt through the gas mask with his bayonet.

The squad starts to back up more, towards the pods behind us. The enemy forces, about two squads of Elite's now, start to open fire. The ship shakes again and I know reinforcements have arrived.

Cairns steps in front of me and starts spraying the enemy cover, her gun clicks as an Elite rushes forward, slamming its fist into her helmet, I hear the sound of glass breaking and I wince as she falls backwards. The Elite raises its energy sword and I spray into it, the alien dies and the energy sword drops into Cairns' stomach, deactivating once it slices through her.

"We need to go now!" McCal yells.

"Cover me!" I scream, grabbing a frag grenade from my belt and slamming my hand down on the seal option for the drop bay, the doors will close if a vacuum is detected, which is exactly what I am going to make.

I grab Cairns by her shoulder plate, dragging her backwards and setting her down inside of my pod, I pull the pins on my grenades and I throw them along with a brick of C12. My squad gets into their pods, I slip inside of mine and put Cairns on my lap as the hatch of my pod closes.

I buckle both of us in and I take off her helmet, the glass cracked against her nose, blood runs down her face and she is pale, her shotgun is now sucked into the vacuum as a result of my explosives.

"Hawkins." She breathes.

"What's up?" I ask her softly,

"I'm gonna die." She says to me.

"I seriously doubt that-"

"Hawkins, I'm being serious." She says to me.

"Alright, what do you want to do about it?" I ask her.

"I want a funeral, and I want the team to be there.. Not like Thwaite's." She says, I nod.

"Alright." I say to her.

She breathes out again and goes limp against me, her eyes wide open.

My pod continues to fly through space until it gets caught in the atmosphere of Algolis, a large nuclear detonation had already went off on one side of the planet and civilian evacuations were completed, now we just had to kick out the Covenant.

My pod goes through the whole sequence before hitting the ground, my door flies off and Cairns slides out of the pod, falling on to her back and staring up at the gray skies of Algolis.

I cough and I sigh, looking at her body. I put my hand up to my helmet and I begin to speak into it. "Cairns is dead." I say, I pull up her vitals just to make sure.

"Fuck." Is all McCal says, he marks a regroup point on our maps, I grab my weapons and put them in their respectful places before grabbing Cairns and carrying her in a fireman's carry towards the marker.

When I arrive, the entire team is already here, standing around and waiting for an attack or for some rest, either would be welcome for an ODST.

I place Cairns down and I look at McCal, raising an eyebrow at him as my visor depolarizes.

"Everyone cover us, we're gonna bury Cairns." McCal says, everybody nods and forms a perimeter around us as we grab our smartools and start digging through the muddy earth.

We get to a point where the ground is deep enough for Cairns. I slide the helmet off of her head and I grab her MA5D while McCal slides her into the grave and starts to throw dirt over her.

When she is buried I stick the MA5 head first into the ground over her grave and I place her helmet on top of it. McCal holds up her dog tags and sighs, sliding them into his webbing.

"Alexis Cairns, KIA, anybody got any last words before we ditch this place." McCal says over COMM.

"Kick ass in hell, Alexis." Volker says over the radio.

"Cairns was brave enough to go head first into hell." Reid says.

"We good? Let's roll out." McCal says as we walk away from the grave. I hope to god this planet does not get glassed.

A white flash blinds the entire team, we watch the sky as the Heart of Midloathian explodes. Bits of the ship start to fall towards us.

"Run!" McCal yells, we all start to sprint forward, crashing through trees and foliage like they aren't there. The map on our HUD's tell us a population center is ahead, which has decent meteorite protection, but we might not make it there in time.

One of the pieces of debris hits to my right, around one hundred meters away, but that means it is getting closer. We run into the population center and close the doors behind us, we all back away from the door as the debris smashes into the earth, lifting dirt and taking out trees. One of the debris pieces lights a large section of the forest on fire, causing it to start spreading.

We walk about two steps before another explosion sounds from up the hallway, this one not from debris. A green flash lights up the hallway as Elite's run in, holding wounds and no other weapons.

"Hands in the air!" I yell, pointing my SAW at them, my squad does the same.

"We... We will not surrender to you puny maggots." The lead Elite, and the biggest one, growls at us.

"Fine." I answer, depressing the trigger of my SAW and unloading a clip of 7.62mm Uranium bullets into the enemy in front of us, putting them all to rest.

"Attention all UNSC units, the conquest of Algolis is a success, another strategic victory for the UNSC." A voice says over the radio.

Two months later

"ONI's lawyers just finished a case with the UEG's Supreme Court, and ONI has lost with the direct quote from Justice Hartman. 'The secret war against alien life should have been explained to citizens of the UNSC and UEG alike, and this war will be publicized.' However, the UNSC has initiated their first draft since the start of the Rain Forest Wars, all men and women over the age of eighteen and are eligible are being called to arms in order to defend humanity against the new aliens, draftee's will be able to choose which branch of the UNSC they want to go into, they will be notified when and where they are to report for drafting, thank you and good night New Alexiandria."

I sigh and I put my drink down, thinking to myself. I stand up and I walk out of the bar, going to my apartment across the street, which I had decided to purchase when my Spec Ops paycheck came in.

I walk in and I turn on the TV, flipping to the news and raising an eyebrow at the new story.

"Latest news reporters have informed us that riots have just broken out in New Alexandria in response to the draft, seven officers have already been injured by rioters, who are now breaking into stores and looting them, using bricks to do so."

I sigh and I shake my head, I continue to watch the riots. Several police lines move in on the rioters before throwing tear gas into the crowds, and then another grenade I have never seen before. The grenades bounce and fall at the peoples feet before exploding in a flash of blue, the only thing left of the rioters are blue cubes.

The officers rush forward and grab the cubes and load them into vehicles before the cubes become people again, the transport vehicles fly off towards the NAPD.

Authors note

The last part of this is dedicated to Freddie Gray who died just two weeks ago in Baltimore, sparking recent riots that are really close to where I live, I disagree with the rioting and I'm glad that around 500 people have decided to start actual peaceful protests.

Now that that is out of the way, I am glad that you guys are keeping up with me here because I don't upload every Wednesday sometimes and I hope to start uploading every Wednesday. Remember to follow, favorite, and review for more!

Note: this is a pre written chapter and I have not posted for awhile because I have Lymes Disease, I apologize.

Also, this chapter is supposed to be before my last one, Possibility of Violence, so I am so sorry!

Read on

-Rsk


	24. Posibillity Time

Chapter XXIII: The Possibility of Violence/Time is on Our Side

Reach, Epsilon Eridani system

February 13th, 2531 UNSC Calendar

Officer Trevor Sanhill

New Alexandria Police Department

I cover my helmet with my hands as they beat me, I feel the glass protecting my eyes break and my HUD turns off. Gunshots, people scream and run away from me as I lay in the middle of the street in fetal position.

"Get him out of there!" A voice yells, I feel hands grab my shoulders and I am dragged backwards, I brush the hands off of me and I stagger to my feet.

The police officer standing in front of me shoves another helmet into my hands, I quickly replace my broken helmet with the new one.

New Alexandria is in chaos from the recent announcements from ONI, dealing with the drafts and the whole thing about this Covenant. Our police line stands in front of the ONI tower, riot shields at the ready.

Gunfire echoes from across the street, I fall back behind the line of SWAT standing in front of me as a crowd of civilians runs towards us.

"At the ready!" Someone yells.

"Aim!" The back of the line pulls grenade launcher-type devices from their sides, the metal boxes alongside of the line also take aim as the crowd is now one hundred meters away.

"Fire!" The back of the line fires their launchers, the metal boxes let loose a hail of rubber balls, smacking into the crowd, the grenades hit the ground and spray up at the civilians with a brown spray, pepper balls.

The lines of civilians drop, all covering their eyes or other parts of their body. A gunshot rings out and a police officer in front of me falls, bleeding from a hole in his chest, despite the riot shield.

"Fuck it!" Someone from the line yells, withdrawing his duty weapon and firing at where the shots came from, a man falls, dropping an MA37 on to the floor next to him.

"Cover me!" I yell, pushing through the line and dashing out to the man, sliding down next to him and grabbing both of his hands, withdrawing a pair of cuffs from my UT belt. I grab his left hand and I slap a cuff on to it, I do the same of the other. I grab the MA37 next to him and I slide it on to my back, I grab him by his cuffs and lift him up, the officer had shot him in the leg, so he'd be alright if we get him assistance.

I run him back to the line, where a troop transport waits with the back door open.

"You asshole.. You never read me my rights!" The man complains as we run.

"You have the right to shut the fuck up!" I spit at him, pushing him through the line and throwing him into the back of the prisoner transport, slamming the doors closed after him.

"Sanhill, are you needed on that line?" I hear over the radio.

"Not really, whatsup?" I ask.

"We need you on 5th avenue, just a block away from you, grab a rifle or something, armed men and women are holed up in an apartment here."

"Alright, 10-76." I tell him, placing my walkie down by my side.

I walk over to the table by the SWAT van, I pick up an MA5 rifle, I check the magazine before slinging it over my back.

I jog up the street until I find the line of SWAT members outside of an apartment building, all of them waiting for the word to move in, weapons aimed at the door.

The door opens and a man falls out, his handgun tumbles from his hands as he hits the ground. I run forward and I grab his collar, dragging him backwards and placing a knee on his stomach, putting his arms behind his back and slapping my last pair of cuffs on to him.

I stand and I drop my blue ball on to him, he turns to a cube and would remain that way until I give the command. I line up outside the door with the rest of the SWAT before entering the building. Gunshots from inside ring out and the first man in the SWAT line falls back on to the second man in line.

"Masks on!" The second man yells, pushing the body off of him and withdrawing his own gas mask.

I reach down to my side and I grab my mask, pressing it against my face.

"Gas out!" He yells, throwing the small container.

A small explosion sounds before people are crying out, the sound of weapons hitting the floor have us our signal to move in.

The first officer in line moves so that everybody else can fit into the small hallway, the SWAT men in front of me open fire on the civilians before moving, a sick feeling enters my stomach.

I walk up the stairs and I move to a door, slamming my foot against the lock of the low-end apartment room. The door crashes down, a lady with a handgun aims at me, her hands trembling.

"Lady, put the gun down." I say to her calmly, aiming my MA5 at her. Her finger wraps tightly around the trigger, so I act first.

Her body crumples to the ground as I look around the apartment, a man sits in one of the rooms, staring at the ceiling with wide eyes.

"Y'know what I love?" He whispers.

"Huh?" I ask.

He jumps to his feet and tackles me, hands around my throat.

"I didn't ask your opinion!" He screeches, he keeps one hand on my throat while the other hand pounds against my face, causing my nose and cheeks to explode with pain.

I grab my pepper ball from my side and I squeeze it into his face, my eyes feel like a bee is living inside of them while the man staggers off of me, falling back.

I grab my handgun from my side and I blast him in the head,

"Fuck!" I cry out, holding my eyes.

I hear footsteps and somebody grabs my hands and takes them off of my face.

"What happened?" He asks.

"I used a pepper ball to get that lunatic off of me." I say to him, my eyes refuse to open to see who it is.

"He must've been hopped up on something, I'll check, stay here." He says, I hear him move away, walking into the room I had found the lunatic inside of.

I don't rub my eyes, as that would make it worse, I feel someone pour water on to my eyes and then I am relieved by my pain. I open my eyes and they slightly start to sting again, I use one hand to support myself as I stand up.

I look around and then down at myself, my Kevlar vest is stained with the blood of the man.

"He was on psycho, there're a whole lot of inhalers in there that have traces on it." The officer tells me.

"Right, what next?" I ask.

"We just got a call to go back to the line, something must be happening." He tells me as we start to walk out.

The rest of the SWAT team stands around, pacing or kicking bodies with the tips of their boots.

We all walk out together before jogging back over to the line, tensions were starting to get high.

Another brick flies out of the crowd and hits an officer.

"That's it!" One of the riot shields man yells, he drops his shield and brings his weapon to bear, he fires into the crowd, at least two more officers follow his lead, unloading live rounds into the crowd as they stumble back.

I rush forward and I grab my sidearm, slamming the butt down on to the first shooter's head. Several officers stop firing, leaving a pile of bodies and writhing wounded on the streets in front of our lines.

"Well shit." I mutter.

Onboard UNSC Forgive and Forget

February 15th, 2532

Private First Class Ryan Shrake

UNSC Marine Corps

Space is boring to be perfectly honest, so boring that we invented cryo tubes to sleep through our journeys, the whole not aging thing was a bonus I suppose. But all I know now is that I am going to die.

Red lights flash around me, the ship shakes and there is nobody to hear our screams. It started when the Captain decided to fly through a fucking plasma storm and now we're drifting through said plasma storm, little sections of our ship being ripped off.

I hear a screeching sound and I feel an electric pulse shoot through my body, my vision goes black.

ERROR LOADING DATE, YEAR: 2519

ERROR, ERROR

SUBJECT: RYAN N SHRAKE

ODST CANDIDATE

I cough as I wake up, clearing my throat of any buildup as I wake, I look around me. Another nightmare, my back still tingles from the electric pulse I had felt moments ago, but it was only a dream, and a bad one.

I look around me and I see the rest of the Candidates laying on their beds, trying to get a little bit more sleep before the wake up commences, which it would in around five minutes.

I hop off of my bunk and I grab my boots, quickly putting them on and lacing them, I pull a shirt over my undershirt and I smooth my hair back, preparing myself for the long day ahead.

The dream flashes through my vision for a second, but I shake my head, managing to clear my thoughts. My arms are sore from the constant exercise and hell we've endured for the last three months, but tomorrow is Grad Day, known as the best day of an ODST's life.

That's me: Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, and tomorrow I would get deployed to kick the Innies' asses.

"Wake up time boys and girls! On your fucking feet!" Sergeant Staten yells at us. All of the other Candidates jump off of their bunks and snap to attention.

"We're going to the range today, get your boots and shirts on, smells like rotten shit in here." Staten yells, crisply spinning around and walking out of our barracks.

"Hey Shrake, you ready for this shit?" I hear behind me, I turn and I grin at Figel.

"Yeah, I just had a weird fucking dream, though." I as to him.

"What dream was that?" He asks.

"I dunno, I had this whole thing of fighting off an alien race, like that's ever gonna happen." I tell him, he just laughs.

"Well, it's gonna be a long fucking day in the ODSTs, eh?" Figel says to me as we walk out, the camp we are on is located on Earth in an old country called Italy, according to the history lessons, this used to be an Airborne camp around six hundred years ago, but it was recently made into an ODST camp due to demand,

We walk into the firing range, equip with standard paper targets, ballistic gel targets, and a hostage simulation room where I would be visiting first.

"Grab a weapon and find a place you wanna go, if you can't decide in the next thirty seconds, then I'll make you stand out there and switch paper targets, while your fellow candidates are firing!" Staten yells at us, I walk over to the table and I grab my personal favorite, the MA5B assault rifle equip with an M309 grenade launcher.

I grab the 7.62 mm rounds needed for my rifle and I slap a magazine into it, I grab a 40 mm det grenade, which is a shoots me grenade that requires activation by either voice command or a detonator, which is a button on the side of my rifle.

I stock up on magazines and 40 mm grenades before walking over to the simulation room, The Pit as we call it, is enormous, basically a maze for problem solvers and complex thinkers. It can fit fifteen Candidates at once, and at this stage of training, there are about twenty left, some jackass knew how to do their math.

There are around ten men and women standing outside of The Pit, including me.

"Alright, who's gonna negotiate?" I hear.

"I will." I call out, the first man in line nods to me.

"You go in last." He tells me, I step in behind everyone else, holding my MA5 tightly.

"Breach!" He calls out, we go in, weapons raised.

None of us wear helmets or armor, just BDU's and t-shirts, which makes it difficult to communicate in The Pit, but that just adds to the challenge.

"Contact! Shrake get up here!" I hear, I run up the line and I see the hostage.

It is a woman, looks around twenty five with an M6 magnum at her head, the Innie stands behind her, making it impossible to shoot him.

I flick up my MA5's grenade launcher and I fire a det grenade into the corner of the room.

"Listen to me!" I yell at him. "My name is Shrake, I am with the UNSC and I want to help you."

"Bullshit! Lemme go or she dies!" He yells, tightening his grip on his magnum.

"This ends in one of two ways, either I detonate that grenade and walk away or you let her go and we can negotiate you leaving here!" I lie, Staten taught us when negotiating with Innies, you never let them leave with their life.

"Right... I'm letting her go!" He yells, shoving her forward, towards me. I step out of the way and the Candidate behind me catches her.

"Now, what about me?" He yells.

"Feet first into hell!" I yell, the grenade detonates and the simulation turns off.

I feel a hand slap my shoulder. "Nice work." I turn and I see the squad leader for the mission, Irish I think his name is.

We walk out of the simulation chamber, and for once, I feel pretty good about myself, but a thought enters my mind.

Khan...

Authors note

I hinted at this in the summary of the story, I recently got a source of stories taking place in 2519 during the Outer Colony engagements, which made me think about a new character, but I couldn't bring myself to make a completely different character, so I brought Shrake back, which is awesome because you guys seemed to like Shrake, I know that I do.

So next chapter I'm bringing back Immortals, it's gonna be a Hawkins chapter, I just gotta think of a planet to be on.

That's it for today! Leave a favorite, follow the story and review to give me feedback on how my ever changing story can improve.

Read on

-Rsk


	25. Immortality

Chapter XXIV: Immortality

Reach, Epsilon Eridani system  
March 8th, 2532 UNSC Calendar  
Private First Class Anson Hawkins  
7th ODST's, Hotel Squad

Honestly, I hate Innies more than I hate the Covenant, simply because we're at war with a homicidal alien race, and they still feel the need to fight against the people protecting them. I never really understood their motivation against the UNSC, if you keep out of government business, the government will keep out of yours, unless you're an ODST.

I think about these things while sitting inside of a Pelican, flying across Reach to another Innie attack, but why they needed ODSTs for this, I have no idea.

"Listen up ladies!" McCal yells over the loud engine. "We've got reports of something big the Innie's are pulling out, big to the point where three buildings have been a part of a hostile takeover and are now in ruins, no explosives used!" He yells, we look at each other, confused. "We're headed to Szurdock Ridge, there's a mining corporation there being targeted by the Innies, get ready for a quick insert." McCal says, putting his helmet on to his head, we all do the same.

I look around me and I groan at all of the new guys we had received in the last couple of weeks, two of them. Dougherty is the squad medic, and Granger carries the DMR, but he's only a spotter unless McCal cannot shoot, and then he's allowed to shoot. Dougherty tells us to call him Dee all the time, but we don't because that's not how nicknames work in the ODST's, and he's gonna figure that out. However, Granger got his first nickname when he dug around in the barracks' trash can to see if we threw his shit out, therefore we now call him Trash Can

And yet I still can't meet their eyes.

I remember very clearly how the two soldiers died, Cairns had died in my arms, I still have nightmares about the Elite punching straight through her helmet like that.

The Pelican slows down and starts to descend, the cargo bay shakes slightly when it touches the ground. The squeal of metal on metal takes up the sound in the room as the doors of the cargo bay open. We all run out, facing all around the Pelican as it lifts off, zooming back towards New Alexandria.

"I wonder why the local militia couldn't handle this." Dougherty mutters over whisper.

"They wanted the best, and they got it." Volker responds.

We start to move up towards the mine, it's not like one of those old mines but a gigantic building connected to a series of underground tunnels that lead to Titanium deposits. And that's what the Innies want.

We move up to the entrance of the mine, the sound of voices ahead forces us to stop and take cover, weapons aimed down the tunnel. Two men wielding MA5B military grade rifle's walk around the corner, talking to each other about something.

"-Sophie said I should leave the Insurrection and come home to see the kid." The guard on the left complains, still walking towards us.

"On my go, we get them to drop their weapons." McCal says over whisper.

"Yeah Bruce, staying here is the biggest priority, what if the UNSC sends someone to attack? You'll be one less guard and we need you." The guard says, clapping Bruce on the shoulder, I peek my head over the crate I hide behind. They both wear titanium armor, much like the UNSCMC's armor but a different color.

They walk past McCal, still talking, McCal stands and puts his hands on both of their shoulders.

"I know how you feel man." He says, Bruce turns and nearly shrieks, the entire squad jumps up, aiming their weapons.

"Drop them!" I yell.

"On the fucking ground!" Dougherty yells, his finger wrapped tightly around the trigger of his weapon. I scoot over to Dougherty and I push the barrel of his weapon down.

The two Innies drop their rifles and put their hands on the back of their heads, McCal zip ties both of them to a support beam, checking them and the area around them for anything sharp they could use to break free.

"Please, I have kids." Bruce says.

"You don't seem very fond of seeing them." I say to him coldly, looking down at the helpless man.

"That's because I am needed here." He says firmly.

McCal brings out his SOCOM magnum, pressing it against the other guard's head.

"Bruce." He says to the worried Innie. "I have some questions, lie about one answer and his brains go all over your armor." He says, the other guard looks extremely worried.

"Bruce, do what they say." He says, hesitantly.

"Question one." McCal says, cocking back the hammer of his magnum. "Why are you harvesting titanium?" McCal asks.

"Armor, weapons, vehicles, you name it." He says nervously.

"What is your plan here?" McCal asks.

"Suicide bombers at several locations that a guy like me cannot know about, once the bombs go off, we attack." He says.

"Last question, how many of your superiors are here?" He asks.

"All of them."

"Thank you for your time." McCal says, he pulls the trigger of his SOCOM on one guard and does the same to Bruce, leaving the bodies zip tied to the post.

"McCal, the fuck?" Reid asks.

"I made it easier for them, Hawkins what is the punishment for rebelling under the UNSC?" McCal asks.

"Public execution." I answer.

"They didn't have to face that, now help me hide the bodies." McCal says, I grab Bruce by his arms and I drag him over to the crate I was hiding behind, I open it and peak inside before throwing the lid off and lifting Bruce into it. I close the crate before walking over to my squad.

"Let's keep moving." McCal says, we walk forward with our guns raised, I switch from my SAW to my silenced SMG, I wouldn't need the SAW unless the enemy found us.

Giggling sounds from up the hall and footsteps run towards us, we stop and aim down the hall, ready for anything.

A little boy and girl run around the corner, the girl trying to catch the boy, they couldn't be more than five. They run pas McCal but stop and look at me hiding behind a pillar, I look down at them and depolarize my visor. I kneel down and look the boy in the eye.

"Hey buddy." I say to him in a calm voice.

"Hi!" The boy says cheerfully.

"Listen, my name is Anson, what's yours?" He asks.

"Tim, but mommy calls me Timmy." He says with a laugh.

"Is your mommy here?" I ask him.

"No; daddy took me here, said mommy didn't love me anymore, we left her in the big city." He says.

I go into whisper comm, blocking anything coming out of my helmet. "Somebody look up recent AMBER alerts that match this kids' description." I say before logging off whisper.

"Listen, this place is not gonna be very safe soon, very had things are going to happen." I tell the boy, the girl looks at me confused.

"Like what?" The boy says.

"Don't worry about that, I need you to wait here, ok? We'll be back and we can take you to your mommy, is this your sister?" I ask him.

He nods. "Her name is Trina!" He says.

"Hey!" She complains.

"What?" The boy asks her.

"I can say my own name!" She complains, crossing her arms and making a pouty face.

"Stay here Tim, protect your sister." I tell him, Tim nods and I stand, my helmet polarizes and I start to walk up the hallway, the rest of my squad follows.

McCal takes lead and we continue, the sounds of many voices gets very close. The hallway ends in what looks like a giant common room.

"We have four targets here, Jed the Priest, Taroff the Executioner, Fallker, and Udiah the Healer." McCal says.

"Jed is the leader of a cult within this insurrection group, recently convinced around eighty people to drink mercury." McCal says. "You can guess what Taroff has been doing with his hands, Fallker is the leader of this insurrection and a close friend to Howard Graves, who is one of two Head of State's for the URF." McCal explains.

"Fallker is the only one we can't kill." Reid adds.

"Right, let's get going." McCal says, we all run into the room, guns aimed at the crowd in front of us.

"On the fucking ground!"

"On the ground or you WILL be shot!"

"Any weapons will result in death so drop them!"

The crowd explodes with chatter and screams, half the crowd gets on to the ground while the other half grabs their weapons from their sides, backs, holsters and starts to kneels down to place them down.

I hear a shot from the crowd and a huge force slamming into my armor, I almost fall over but my armor's shock absorbers do their job.

I grab my SAW and I start to fire into the crowd, any surrendering Innie is on the ground on the other side of the room.

The four leaders stand on the stage in the center of the room, in shock as Reid, Chorei, and Volker grab them and start running them to the exit, Reid has two of the leaders.

I move forward after the crowd has either died of surrendered.

"Calling in the Marines for prisoner extraction." McCal says.

_  
Private Gerald Redwood  
UNSC Marine Corps

I clench my teeth as the Pelican lands a little too hard on the ground, I grab my MA5B from the holder next to me and I charge out the door with the rest of the Marines in my platoon. We jog into the mine shaft, after jogging for two minutes we find two kids waiting.

"These are the kids the Troopers were talking about." My Sergeant says over the radio. Two Marines step out of line and pick up the kids, the boy sits near one of their shoulders while the girl gets a free piggyback ride from the other Marine.

"Be careful with them." Sergeant orders as the Marines jog up the hall. We continue moving until we find the four prisoners the Troopers are extracting.

Three troopers stand by them, they turn to us and one of them nods.

"There's an entire crowd of Innies in there, you can take them." One of the Troopers says, we walk in and start to zip tie the members of the crowd. Several Marines walk the crowd out back to a prisoner transport while we cover them.

I hear the sound of running feet, one of the prisoners runs towards me and the other Marines. His hands come out from his back, something clenched in his hand.

I raise my MA5B as he gets close to me, I pull the trigger and I watch him drop, a spray of blood flying from his neck.

And that's when he explodes.

I fall backwards and I feel an extreme pain in my leg, bullets start flying as I black out.

_

I watch the Innie explode and I jump into action as four giant Innies and around twenty armed men and women burst out on to the stage, firing on the Marines. The larger Innies wear bulky armor, complete titanium armor.

I depress the trigger and watch a couple of them fall, their chest cavities being ripped open by my bullets. One of the large Innies walks over to a Marine who open fires on him the Innie doesn't seem to notice the bullets as he bitch slaps the Marine, sending him flying and crashing on top of the Marine who had just lost both of his legs, his intestines hang out of the bottom of his torso, blood pooling out of it.

The giants run towards the crowds, Reid, Chorei, and Volker open fire on the giants, allowing the leaders to run towards the stage where the Innies uncuff them, McCal and I rush forward, I throw my SAW over my back and I grab my SOCOM, I take out the Innies on the stage one by one, McCal follows my lead and fires while I reload.

I reach Jed first and I shove him to the ground, he grabs my magnum and tries to reverse it, I slam my armored glove into Jed's mouth, all of his teeth crack and fall into the back of his throat as I press the magnum against his head, pulling the trigger and splattering his brains on to the floor next to us before he can even scream.

Udiah rushes forward and tries to kick me, he screams as his foot connects with my armor and he falls back. I jump up I aim my magnum at him while McCal secure Fallker. Udiah starts to laugh, he shoves his hand into his mouth, it starts to foam up, his eyes roll into the back of his head and he falls back.

Fallker is secure now, Taroff jumps on to the stage in an attempt to run, I put a magnum bullet into his leg, he screams and collapses, McCal jumps on to the stage and grabs his Ka-Bar knife from his side, slamming it down on Taroff's neck, his head rolls off the stage.

I feel myself being lifted off of the ground, I fly and slide along the floor, one of the big guys has literally thrown me. I hear giant footsteps making their way towards me, I reach for my SMG, my magnum now back near the stage. I spray the giant, all sixty bullets connect with him but he continues to walk towards me, I reload and spray him again.

The Innie takes off his helmet and coughs blood on to the floor, he looks down as an SMG bullet shoots straight through his head.

"One down!" I yell.

"Hawkins, help!" Volker yells, I turn and see him getting punched, he flies backwards, a loud cracking sound emits from his helmet as his visor spider webs.

I aim my SMG at the behemoth of a man. Click. I curse and I throw my SMG away, looking around for a weapon. A blow torch sits on one of the crates, I run forward and I grab it, sprinting to where Volker is trying his best to fight off the armored man.

I yell as I leap forward, grabbing around the giant around his neck and clawing at his helmet to try and get it off, no joy. I slam the bottom of the blow torch into the visor of his helmet over and over again until it breaks. The man tries to throw me off, but I remain planted on him as I shove the nozzle of the blow torch into his face and pulling the trigger, keeping it held down until his screams cease, he falls face first and I go with him. Melted skin and titanium drip out of his visor.

I breathe heavily. 'Two to go.' I think to myself as I help Volker to his feet, I spin the blow torch before dropping it and grabbing my Ka-Bar from my side. The other two are fighting Chorei, Reid and McCal, McCal defends Fallker while Chorei and Reid defend him, firing their shotguns to try and pierce the enemy's armor with some success.

I run forward with Volker next to me, he has since grabbed the blow torch and has followed me, I look at him.

"Volk, melt off the back of their armor." I tell him, he nods as we approach, Volker gets to work, the back panel of the Innies' armor falls off right as he notices us, I stab my large knife straight through him, my knife clinks against the inside of his chest armor.

I pull the knife out as the other giant slams into me, sending me sliding towards the stage, the top of my helmet slams against the metal stage and I cry out, the vibrations inside of my skull making me dizzy.

The giant continues to fight off Reid and Chorei, Volker runs to where I dropped my magnum and grabs it, running over to the Innie and jumping on to his back. Volker slams the muzzle of the magnum into the giant's visor and fires, the giant staggers back, a clean hole straight through his head.

But he's still standing.

He looks up to the sky, blood drips from his bullet wound. "Forever immortal!" He screams, the last thing I see is the giant explode, causing the cavern around us to collapse before I black out.

_  
Four hours post Immortal attack

My head throbs as I wake up, I can't move my legs. Cracks spiderweb all over my visor, making my HUD flicker and flash every couple of seconds. I plant my hands on the ground and I pull my legs from the rock they were just under.

I look around, I have around a ten foot area that is uncovered, the rest I cannot see.

"Anybody up?" I ask over the radio, hoping someone will hear me.

"Hawkins?" Asks McCal.

"That's my lovely name." I reply.

"Holy shit, we've already left the area." McCal was in disbelief.

"I thought the motto was no man left behind." I retort, my eyes narrowing.

"Hawkins-" McCal starts.

"Nononono, I don't want excuses, I want to go home." I answer.

"Hawkins we left you because your vitals flatlined."

"What?!"

_  
Authors note

Y'know, it's been a little while since I left on a cliffhanger, I have a lot of explaining to do for why I am no longer frequent with my chapters. So this week we've had this test called the HSA which is a graduation requirement and if I fail it I have to retake it next year, so I dedicated time to that, along with this I recently bought a new Laptop which I have been setting up and tinkering with, which has been a lot of fun considering I can run most games at around 90 FPS.

Anyway, enough about me, let's talk about the story. This chapter was a particularly gory one because I'm that kind've person, if you haven't figured out that I can be very descriptive with these things then I will come and read the entire fic to you. I thought about each death very carefully and I wondered what would happen if...? For instance: what would happen if you were punched in the mouth by a titanium glove? I also switched characters and killed him, which was completely necessary to get my point across about this, to make somebody think about how quickly life can be taken. I brought the Immortals back, but I am unsure about how tough they should be, the bullets in Halo easily punch through Innie armor, so I don't know if I should give them shields or make them bullet sponges.

After some research I figured out that right now titanium is one of the strongest metals on Earth and can actually shatter a persons skull if it were being used as an effective weapon. So an entire mouth full of teeth is nothing to titanium. I also made every death other than Jed's really ironic. Uriah the healer kills himself with cyanide, Taroff the executioner gets his head cut off, get it? I thought it was funny...

Anyway, I'm sharing the credit of these deaths with my friend Griffin because he sat there as I explained every death in detail and how I wanted it to play out, so good for him I guess.

If you enjoyed the chapter I really would not mind a couple more followers and more love for the story to keep my inspiration going, I actually looked at the traffic graph and we have around 3.2k views which is a huge achievement for me. If you enjoyed leave a review telling me how awesome or how fucking stupid I am and I will respond to it in the next authors note, see you all next time.

I dunno if you could tell or not, but I'm bringing back Sins, I've overcome my writers block of.. Two years now? And I'm writing for it again, expect more chapters soon!

Read on  
-Rsk


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